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PRELIMINARY REPORT 

OF THE COMMISSION APPOINTED BY 

THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

n 

TO INVESTIGATE 

MODERN SPIRITUALISM 

IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE REQUEST OF THE LATE 

HENRY SEYBERT 

WITH A FOREWORD BY H. H. FURNESS, JR. 




PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON 
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
1920 



.S+ 






COPYRIGHT, 1887, BT J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
PREFACE COPYBIGHTBD, 1920, BY J. B. MPPINCOTT COMPANY 



PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS 

PHILADELPHIA, V. 8. A, 



MM -5 W20 



'CU565796 






FOREWORD 

Now, at the present time, when the attention of the public is 
turning towards questions of Psychology and Psychiatry, it is 
most appropriate that a volume such as the present Report be 
again placed in the hands of the public. While it cannot be said 
that the conclusions reached by the Seybert Commission were 
final, yet material for future investigation was furnished and 
facts so clearly stated that the reader might form his own con- 
clusions. The purpose and intended scope of the Commission 
are plainly set forth in the Preliminary sections, and therefore 
need not be entered upon here. 

Of the members composing that Commission but one is now 
surviving, Dr. Calvin B. Knerr, who contributed an interesting 
report on the slate-writing medium, Mrs. Patterson. The sec- 
tions by the Acting-Chairman, Dr. Horace Howard Furness, on 
Mediumistic Development, Sealed Letters, and Materialization 
were the occasion of acrimonious and violent attack on the whole 
work of the Commission by those periodicals devoted to spirit- 
ualism and its propaganda. Age cannot wither the charm of the 
good humoured satire with which the Acting-Chairman treated 
these subjects ; and it was largely the spirit in which they were 
thus approached that inspired the intense hostility on the part 
of the spiritual mediums and their many followers. 

It has been epigrammatically said that, Superstition is, 
in many cases, the cloak that keeps a man's religion from 
dying of cold; possibly the same may be said of Spiritual- 
ism and Psychology. 

February, 1920. H. H. FuRNESS, Jb. 



PRELIMINARY REPORT 

OF 

The Seytort Commission for Investigating Modem Spiritualism, 



To the Trustees of The University of Pennsylvania: 

* The Seybert Commission for Investigating Modern Spirit- 
ualism ' respectfully present the following Preliminary Report, 
and request that the Commission be continued, on the follow- 
ing grounds : 

The Commission is composed of men whose days are already 
filled with duties which cannot be laid aside, and who are 
able, therefore, to devote but a small portion of their time 
to these investigations. They are conscious that your honor- 
able body look to them for a due performance of their task, 
and the only assurance which they can offer of their 
earnestness and zeal is in thus presenting to you, from time 
to time, such fragmentary Reports as the following, whereby 
they trust that successive steps in their progress may be 
marked. It is no small matter to be able to record any 
progress in a subject of so wide and deep an interest as the 
present. It is not too much to say that the farther our in- 
vestigations extend the more imperative appears the demand 
for these investigations. The belief in so-called Spiritualism 
is certainly not decreasing. It has from the first assumed a re- 
ligious tone, and now claims to be ranked among the denomi- 
national Faiths of the day. 

(3) 



From the outset your Commission have been deeply im- 
pressed with the seriousness of their undertaking, and have 
fully recognized that men eminent in intelligence and 
attainments yield to Spiritualism an entire credence, and 
who can fail to stand aside in tender reverence when 
crushed and bleeding hearts are seen to seek it for consolation 
and for hope ? They beg that nothing which they may say 
may be interpreted as indicating indifference or levity. 
Wherever fraud in Spiritualism be f und, that it is, and 
not whatever of truth there may be therein, which is de- 
nounced, and all Spiritualists who love the truth will join 
with us in condemnation of it. 

The admission of evidence concerning the so-called Spiritual 
manifestations has been duly weighed. There is apparent 
force in the argument that our national histories are founded, 
accepted and trusted on evidence by no means as direct as that 
by whicli, it is claimed, the proofs of Spiritual miracles are 
accompanied. But it must be remembered that the facts of 
profane history are vouched for by evidence which is in accord 
with our present experience; they are in harmony with all that 
is now going on in the light of day (that history repeats itself 
has grown into a commonplace), and we are justified in ac- 
cepting them on testimony, however indirect, which is never- 
theless at one with the ordinary course of events. But the 
phenomena of Spiritualism have no such support; they are 
commonly regarded as in contravention of the ordinary ex- 
perience of mankind (in that they are abnormal and extra- 
ordinary lies their very attractiveness to many people), and 
no indirect testimony concerning them can be admitted 
without the most thorough, the most searching scrutiny. 
We doubt if any thoughtful Spiritualist could be found 
to maintain that we should unquestioningly accept all the 
so-called ' facts ' with which their annals teem. To sift 



the evidence of merely half a dozen would require incalcu- 
lable labor. Wherefore we decided that, as we shall be held 
responsible for our conclusions, we must form those conclu- 
sions solely on our own observations ; without at all imputing 
untrustworthiness to the testimony of others we can really 
vouch only for facts which we have ourselves observed. 

The late Mr. Henry Seybert during his lifetime was known as 
an enthusiastic believer in Modern Spiritualism, and shortly be- 
fore his death presented to The University of Pennsylvania a 
sum of money sufficient to found a chair of Philosophy, and to 
the gift added a condition that the University should appoint a 
Commission to investigate ' all systems of Morals, Religion, or 
Philosophy which assume to represent the Truth, and particu- 
larly of Modern Spiritualism.' 

A Commission was accordingly appointed, composed as fol- 
lows: Dr. William Pepper, Dr. Joseph Leidy, Dr. George A. 
Koenig, Professor Robert Ellis Thompson, Professor George S. 
Fullerton and Dr. Horace Howard Furness; to whom were 
afterwards added Mr. Coleman Sellers, Dr. James W. White, 
Dr. Calvin B. Knerr and Dr. S. Weir Mitchell. Of this Com- 
mission Dr. Pepper, as Provost of The University, was, ex-officio, 
Chairman, Dr. Furness, Acting Chairman, and Professor Ful- 
lerton, Secretary. 

As a befitting preliminary, at one of our earliest meetings 
each member in turn expressed his entire freedom from all 
prejudices against the subject to be investigated, and his readi- 
ness to accept any conclusion warranted by facts; one of our 
number, the Acting Chairman, so far from being unprejudiced 
confessed to a leaning in favor of the substantial truth of 
Spiritualism. 

We deemed ourselves fortunate at the outset in having as a 



6 

counselor the late Mr. Thos. R. Hazard, a personal friend of 
Mr. Seybert, and widely known throughout the land as an un- 
compromising Spiritualist. 

By the advice of Mr. Hazard we addressed ourselves first to 
the investigation of Independent Slate "Writing, and through 
his aid a seance for this purpose was arranged with a noted 
Medium, Mrs. S. E. Patterson. 

This mode of manifesting Spiritualistic power, as far as 
it has come under our observation, is, concisely stated, the 
writing on the concealed surface of a slate which is in contact 
with a Medium. In the present instance, between two slates 
fastened together by a hinge on one side and a screw on 
the other, there was placed a small fragment of slate pen- 
cil ; when this fragment is bitten off by the Medium, it re- 
ceives, so Mr. Hazard assured us, additional Spiritualistic power. 
As soon as a Spirit has finished writing its communication with 
the pencil on the inner surface of the slates, the completion of 
the task is made known by the appearance of the slate pencil on 
the outside, upon the slates. The slates are always held in con- 
cealment under the table, and never has this -remarkable pas- 
sage of the pencil through the solid substance of the slate been 
witnessed by any one, not even by the Medium herself, in all 
the years during which this wonderful phenomenon has been 
a matter of daily, almost hourly, experience. 

Our first seance was held in the evening at the Medium's 
own home. The slates were screwed together with the bit of 
slate pencil enclosed, and held by the Medium between her open 
palms, in her lap, under the table. After waiting an hour and 
a half without the least response on the slates from the Spirits, 
the attempt was abandoned for that evening much to the dis- 
appointment, not only of us all, but to the chagrin of Mr. 
Hazard, who could not understand ' what the deuce was in it, 
seeing that the Medium was one of the very best in the world, and 



on the preceding evening, when he was all alone with her, the 
messages from the spirit of Henry Seybert came thick and fast.' 

No better success attended our second seance with this Me- 
dium, although we waited patiently an hour and twenty 
minutes, while the slates were in the Medium's lap. 

By the advice of the Medium, in order to eliminate any pos- 
sible antagonism, we divided our numbers, and only one or 
two of us at a time sat with her. On one occasion writing did 
appear on the slates, after the slates had been held by both 
hands of the Medium for a long time in concealment under 
the table, but to neither of the two sitters did the screw appear 
to be by any means as tightly fastened after the writing as 
before; nor did the writing of two or three illegible words 
seem beyond the resources of very humble legerdemain ; in 
fact, no legerdemain was needed, after a surreptitious loosen- 
ing of the screw which, considering the state of the frame of 
the slate, could have been readily effected. 

From some cause or other the atmosphere of Philadelphia 
is not favorable to this mode of Spiritual manifestation. With 
the exception of the Medium just alluded to, not a single 
Professional Independent Slate "Writing Medium was known 
to us at that time in this city, nor is there one resident here 
even at this present writing, as far as we know. 

We were, therefore, obliged to send for one to New York. 
With this Medium, Dr. Henry Slade, we had a number of 
sittings, and, however wonderful may have been the manifes- 
tations of his Mediumship in the past, or elsewhere, we were 
forced to the conclusion that the character of those which 
passed under our observation was fraudulent throughout. 
There was really no need of any elaborate method of investi- 
gation; close observation was all that was required. 

At the risk of appearing inconsequent by mentioning that 
first which in point of time came last, we must premise that 



in our investigations with this Medium we early discovered 
the character of the writing to be twofold, and the difference 
between the two styles to be striking. In one case the 
communication written on the slate by the Spirits was general 
in its tone, legible in its chirography, and usually covered 
much of the surface of the slate, punctuation being attended 
to, the i's dotted, and the fs crossed. In the second, when the 
communication was in answer to a question addressed to a 
Spirit the writing was clumsy, rude, scarcely legible, abrupt 
in terms, and sometimes very vague in substance. In short, 
one bore the marks of deliberation and the other of haste. 
This difference we found to be due to the different conditions 
under which the communications were written. The long 
messages are prepared by the Medium before the seance. The 
short ones, answers to questions asked during the seance, 
are written under the table with what skill practice can confer. 

With this knowledge, it is clear that the investigator has to 
deal with a simple question of legerdemain. The slate, with its 
message already written, must in some way be substituted for 
one which the sitter knows to be clean. The short answers 
must be written under trying circumstances, out of sight, under 
the table, with all motions of the arm or hand concealed. It 
is useless to attempt to limit the methods whereby these two 
objects may be attained. All that we can do is to describe the 
processes which we distinctly saw this Medium adopt. 

In its simplest form (and one which any person can try 
with astonishing results upon an artless, unsuspicious sitter), a 
slate, on which, before the sitter's visit, a message has been 
written, is lying face downward on the table when the seance 
begins. There are other slates on an adjoining table within 
easy reach of the Medium. In order that the Medium may be 
brought into Spiritual relationship with the sitters, contact 
with the Medium is necessary, and the sitters are therefore 



9 

requested to place their hands, palms downward, in the middle 
of the table ; on these hands the Medium places his own and 
the seance begins. Before long, the presence of Spiritual power 
becomes manifest by raps on the table, or by vibratory move- 
ments of the table, more or less violent, and by spasmodic jerk- 
ings or twitching of the Medium's arms or body. "When sufficient 
Spiritual power has been generated, the Medium takes up the 
slate, and, still controlling with his left hand the hands of his 
sitters, places on it a minute fragment of slate pencil. No offer 
is made to show both sides (the prepared message is on the 
hidden side), the side in full view is perfectly clean, and it is on 
that side that the Spirits are to write with the slate pencil; there 
is no need of showing the other side. With his right hand the 
Medium holds the slate under the edge of the table, barely 
concealing it thereunder, and drawing it forth every few sec- 
onds to see if any writing has appeared. After waiting in vain 
for five or ten minutes, the Medium's patience becomes ex- 
hausted, and he reaches for another slate from the table close 
behind him, and, ostentatiously washing both sides of it, lays it 
on the table in front of him (still controlling with his left hand 
the hands of his sitters), and removes the pencil from the first 
slate to the second, and on top of the second so places the first 
slate that the prepared message is underneath, on the inside 
and next to the other slate. The trick is done. All that now 
remains for the Medium to do is to hold the two slates under 
the table for awhile, or rest them on the shoulder close to 
the ear of the sitter on the Medium's right, and, by scratching 
with the finger nail on the frame of the slate, to imitate the 
writing by the Spirits with the enclosed pencil. When there 
are two or more sitters it is only the one on the right of the 
Medium who is privileged to hear the writing. To apply 
the slate to the ear of any other would disclose the way in 
which the sound of the writing is counterfeited. To him, 



10 

therefore, who sits on the Medium's left, so that the Medium's 
hand, while holding the slates on the shoulder of the sitter on 
the right, is sharply outlined against the light, the motions of 
the Medium's fingers while the sound of writing is imitated by 
him may be distinctly seen. 

By such elementary tricks of legerdemain as these are guile- 
less, honest folk deceived. 

Dr. Slade prefers to have only two sitters at a time, one on 
his right and one opposite. The fourth side of the table he 
prefers to have unoccupied; his manipulations of the slate 
can be from that side more readily observed; moreover, strange 
Spiritual antics may be there manifested, such as upsetting 
chairs which happen to be there, making slates appear above 
the edge of the table, etc. These manifestations are executed 
by the Medium's foot, which, on one occasion, was distinctly 
seen before it had time to get back into its slipper by one of 
our number, who stooped very quickly to pick up a slate which 
had accidentally fallen to the floor while the Spirits were trying 
to put it into the lap of one of the sitters. 

At the first two seances an ordinary wooden -table was used 
belonging to the hotel where Dr. Slade lodged. At the third 
stance a similar but larger table was used, somewhat the worse 
for wear, and the joints of its leaves were far from fitting close. 
Every crack, however, and every chink had been carefully 
filled up with paper to prevent, so the Medium said, ' the elec- 
tricity from flowing through.' 

The method of producing the long message which opened 
the seance has been described above. Whenever we received 
other long messages, written with some care and more or less 
filling the side of the slate, the agency employed was adroit 
substitution, generally effected when the Medium supposed 
that the attention of his sitters was engrossed, with an answer 
just received to a question addressed to the Spirits. Prepared 



11 

slates resting against the leg of the table behind him were sub- 
stituted for those which but a moment before he had 
ostentatiously washed on both sides and laid on the table in 
front of him. The handwriting of these long messages bore 
an unmistakable similarity to the Medium's own. 

When a question is written on the slate by a sitter, equal 
dexterity to that used in substituting the prepared slate, or 
even greater, is demanded of the Medium, in reading the ques- 
tion and in writing the answer. 

The question is written by the sitter out of sight of the 
Medium, to whom the slate, face downward, is handed over 
and a piece of pencil placed on it. 

The task now before the Medium is first to secure the frag- 
ment of pencil and to hold it while the slate is surreptitiously 
turned over and the question read, then the slate is turned 
back again and the answer written. 

Every step in the process we have distinctly seen. In order to 
seize the fragment of pencil without awakening suspicion, 
while holding the slate under the table, the slate is constantly 
brought out to see whether or not the Spirits have written an 
answer. By this manoeuvre a double end is attained : First, it 
creates an atmosphere of expectation, and the sitters grow ac- 
customed to a good deal of motion in the Medium's arm that 
holds the slate ; and secondly, by these repeated motions the 
pencil (which, having been cut out from a slate pencil enclosed 
in wood, is square, and does not roll about awkwardly), is 
moved by the successive jerks toward the hand which holds 
the slate, and is gradually brought up to within grasping 
distance. The forefinger is then passed over the frame of the 
slate, and it and the thumb seize and hold the pencil, and 
under cover of some violent convulsive spasms the slate is 
turned over and the question read. At this point it is that the 
Medium shows his nerve: it is the critical instant, the only one 



12 

when his eyes are not fastened on his visitors. On one occasion, 
when the question was written somewhat illegibly in a back 
hand, with a very light stroke, and close to the upper edge of 
the slate, the Medium had to look at it three several times 
before he could make it out. 

After reading the question, it may be noticed that Dr. Slade 
winks three or four times rapidly; this may have been 
partly to veil from his visitors the fact that he had been looking 
intently downward, and partly through mental abstraction in 
devising an answer. He evidently breathes freer when this 
crisis is past. 

Convulsive spasms attend the reversing of the slate, which 
is then generally held between his knees; only once did we note 
that he placed it on his knees, and once we believed that he 
supported it by pressing it against the leg of the table. The 
answer is written without looking at the slate, in a coarse, large, 
sprawling hand, at times scarcely legible. While writing he 
keeps his eyes steadily fixed on his visitors, and generally 
rests a minute or two after it is finished. Presently the slate is 
held near the edge of the table and close up to it, and a tremu- 
lous motion imparted to it suggests that Spiritual power is then 
at work and that the writing is in progress. 

Dr. Slade performed several little tricks which he imputed 
to Spiritual agency, but which were almost puerile in the sim- 
plicity of their legerdemain, and which have been repeated 
with perfect success by one of our number ; such as tossing a 
slate pencil on and sometimes over the table from a slate held 
apparently under the table, or the playing of an accordion 
when held with one hand under the table. This Medium's 
fingers are unusually long and strong, and the accordion, being 
quite small and with only four bellows folds, can be readily 
manipulated with but one hand, and when under the table is 
held by the keys. 



13 

Two compasses, which we placed on the table during one 
seance, remained unaffected by Dr. Slade's presence. 

At our last seance with him we noticed two slates which 
were not with the other slates on the small table behind him, 
but were on the floor resting against the leg of that table, and 
within easy reach of his hand as he sat at the larger table. 
As we had previously seen prepared slates similarly placed 
we kept a sharp watch on these slates. Unfortunately, it 
was too sharp. Dr. Slade caught the look that was directed 
at them. That detected glance was sufficient to prevent the 
Spirits from sending us the messages which they had so care- 
fully prepared. The slates were not produced during the 
seance, but when it was over one of our number managed to 
strike them with his foot so as to displace them and reveal 
the writing. None of us present that day will be likely to 
forget the hurried way in which these slates were seized by the 
Medium and washed. 

We think it worthy to be recorded that, in reply to a ques- 
tion, Dr. Slade said that Professor Zoellner watched him closely 
only during the first three or four sittings, but that afterwards 
Professor Zoellner let him do just as he pleased, fully and unre- 
servedly submitting to all the conditions demanded by the 
Spirits. 

We received from Dr. Slade a written expression of his 
satisfaction with our treatment of him, which had been 
throughout, so he said, entirely fair and courteous, and of his 
willingness at any time hereafter to sit with us again, should 
we desire it and his engagements permit. 

It is a source of regret that, in our investigations, we have 
received no aid from unprofessional Mediums; and in dealing 
with professional Mediums we have been continually dis- 
tracted by the conflicting estimates in which these Mediums 



14 

are held among the Spiritualists themselves. There are very, 
very few professional Mediums, as far as our experience 
goes, who are accepted by all Spiritualists as free from the 
reproach of fraud. Indeed one Medium with whom, by the 
advice of Mr. Hazard, we had a seance, and for whom Mr. 
Hazard vouched as one of the best of his class, we have seen 
denounced as a 'liar and a thief.' In the earnestness of our 
zeal we advertised in the local secular press, and in 
the leading Spiritualist Journals both East and West, for 
Independent Slate Writing Mediums, and to this wide- 
spread appeal there came but three replies, and of these, two 
were so remote that the promise of performance held out by 
the respondents did not, in our opinion, justify so large an 
outlay of money for traveling expenses as a journey across the 
Continent involved. This noteworthy reluctance on the part 
of Mediums to come before us cannot be due to any harsh or 
antagonistic treatment received at our hands by any Medium. 
All Mediums have been treated by us with uniform courtesy, 
and with every endeavor to acquiesce in the 'conditions ' imposed 
or suggested by the Spirits. And yet a well-known Medium in 
New York, Mrs. Thayer, to whom the Acting Chairman was 
unknown, and with whom he was at the time having a seance, 
vehemently asserted that no member of the 'Seybert Commis- 
sion ' should ever have a seance with her, that the whole Com- 
mission, one and all, were ' old scoundrels and should never 
darken her doors,' etc., etc., and confessed that the foundation 
of her belief was the warning (sent to her by an eminent Me- 
dium whose seances the Commission had attended) that she 
should have nothing to do with ' the Seybert men, that they 
would do her no good.' Even in instances where Mediums 
have expressed their willingness to appear before us, we have 
been embarrassed by demands for compensation which we 
could not but deem extortionate and, practically, prohibitory; 



15 

as in the case of Mr. Keeler, the Spiritual Photographer, whose 
terms will be found in the Appendix, and in that of Dr. Henry 
Rogers, whose terms were five hundred dollars if he should be 
successful before us, and the half of that sum if he failed. 

Although the number of Mediums whose manifestations we 
have been able to examine has been thus restricted, we feel 
ourselves justified in giving as a result of our examination of 
Independent Slate Writing that, whether the agency be Spirit- 
ual or Material, its mode of manifestation almost wholly pre- 
cludes any satisfactory investigation. 

There are not wanting eminent expounders of the Spiritual- 
istic Faith who assert that this is as it should be, and that if in 
the attempt to apply the laws of the material world to Spiritual 
manifestations we are baffled, the fault lies in us, and not in 
the Mediums. If this be so, we must accept our fate and enlarge 
the adage that 'poets are born, not made,' and include 
Spiritualists. 

Yet, as a rule, Mediums assert that they invite investi- 
gation. Our experience has been, as we have just said, that as 
soon as an investigation, worthy of the name, begins, all mani- 
festations of Spiritualist power cease. 

The bare statement of the conditions whereunder the Me- 
diums maintain that the manifestations of Independent Slate 
Writing are alone possible, involves the extreme difficulty, we 
might almost say the impossibility, of any genuine or rational 
investigation. Even the very spirit of investigation, or of incre- 
dulity, seems to exercise a chilling effect and prevents a success- 
ful manifestation. Indeed Mr. Hazard once told us that the 
true spirit in which to approach the study of Spiritualism is 
' an entire willingness to be deceived.' In Independent Slate 
Writing, in our experience, there is a period, of longer or shorter 
duration, when the slate is concealed. During this period the 
investigator's eye must not watch it. When the slate is held 



16 

under the table, knees and feet and clothing exert no deleterious 
effect, but the gaze of a human eye is fatal to all Spiritual 
manifestation ; although to one of our number, on three occa- 
sions, a pocket mirror, carefully adjusted, unknown to the Me- 
dium, gave back the reflection of fingers, which were clearly 
not Spiritual, opening the slates and writing the answer. 

There is really no step in the bare process of producing this 
writing, as we have observed it, which might not be accomplished 
by trickery or by legerdemain. Of course, therefore, we were 
sincerely anxious to disprove in these experiments the presence 
of those discreditable elements, not only for the credit of human 
nature, but for the sake of the great scientific interest involved. 
We are perfectly ready to accept any fact of Spiritual power; 
and so far from flinching from an open avowal of our belief in 
this revelation of a novel force in Nature, we would welcome it. 
But no one, not a Spiritualist, we should suppose, can demand 
of us that we should accept profound mysteries with our eyes 
tight shut, and our hands fast closed, and with every avenue to 
our reasoning faculties insurmountably barred. Yet this is pre- 
cisely what is demanded of us by Mediums in regard to Inde- 
pendent Slate Writing. We must sign a dispensation to forego 
the exercise of common sense, and accept as ' fact ' what they 
choose so to term. Few assertions by departed Spirits are 
more hacknied than, 'This is a great truth,' and yet in an 
honest endeavor to prove that it is a 'great truth;' and not a 
great lie, the sincere and earnest seeker is at every turn baffled 
and thwarted. 

To eliminate from our investigations every element of distrust, 
or hostility, or suspicion, or chilling antagonism, we entrusted to 
Mr. Hazard's friend, Mrs. Patterson, vouched for by him as one 
of the very best Mediums in the country, two carefully closed 
and sealed slates, enclosing, of course, the required piece of slate- 
pencil, with the earnest entreaty that the Spirits should write 



17 

therein even if it were but the merest mark, sign, or scratch, 
therewith we would be content, and be ready to accept Inde- 
pendent Slate Writing with its train of consequences. The 
Medium was fully impressed with the importance of the trial, 
and with the fame which would thereby accrue from such a 
wholesale conversion as that of the united Seybert Commission. 

Every Medium, it would appear, is under the special tutelage 
of a departed Spirit; this Spirit is termed the 'Medium's 
control.' In the present case, when the slates were delivered to 
Mrs. Patterson, her 'control,' one 'Thomas Lister,' at once 
promised that Spirit hands should shortly write within the 
sealed-up space. But no writing came that day nor the next, 
nor the next, although the Medium protested that every atten- 
tion should be bestowed on the refractory slates. In vain was 
the Medium again and again adjured to put forth every power. 
At the end of six months the slates were received again, with- 
out any writing, according to the confession of the Medium. 

So anxious, however, was our Acting Chairman that the ex- 
periment should prove successful, that, undeterred by this fail- 
ure, he carefully sealed up a second slate, and placed it in the 
hands of the same Medium, with renewed adjurations to put 
forth all her Spiritualistic strength. At the end of a fortnight or 
more, after redoubled exertions of Mediumistic power, to which 
was added the combined Spiritualistic power of the Medium's 
entire family circle, the exciting announcement was made to 
us that the fragment of slate pencil within the slates could no 
longer be heard to rattle, and that presumably the Spirits had 
written a message for us. 

Each Medium, generally, has some peculiar mode of mani- 
festing Spiritualistic power; it is a peculiarity of this Medium, 
as has been before stated, that the completion of the Spirit 
message within the slates is indicated not by raps, as is 
frequently the case with other Mediums, but by the sudden 



18 

and marvelous appearance on the top of the slate of the little 
fragment of pencil, which had been securely fastened up 
within. The fact, therefore, that the pencil was no longer 
inside of our slates was presumptive evidence that the 
Medium's control had been true to his word, and had 
written us a message. The slates were received from the 
Medium most carefully, and a meeting of the Commission 
hastily called. It is scarcely worth while to enter here at 
length on the details of that session, of the careful scru- 
tiny to which the slates were subjected, of the unmutilated 
seals, of the untouched screws, etc., etc. ; but it is worth while 
to record the feeling of grave responsibility, almost akin to 
solemnity, with which we all approached what, for aught we 
knew, might prove to be a revelation of a power as wonderful 
as any with which, as yet, we had ever been brought into ac- 
quaintance. Just before we opened the slates it was noticed that 
at one corner, owing to the flexibility of the wooden frames, it 
was quite possible to stretch the slates far enough apart to per- 
mit the insertion of the blade of a knife, and an examination 
of the edges at this point revealed only too plainly discolored 
abrasions. When the slates were finally opened, not a stroke 
of writing nor a scratch was to be found, but at the suspected 
corner were the discolored marks, visible to this day, of the knife 
which had been inserted to extract the pencil, which, in its 
enforced outward passage, had left behind, in its scratches on 
the wood, a tell-tale trail of dust which the microscope revealed 
to be of the same substance as the pencil. The Spirits had 
not taken even the precaution to wipe the broad knife clean 
from rust or dirt. The slates are preserved in our sad 
museum of specimens of misdirected ingenuity. 

We are continually confronted with statements wherein the 
narrator claims a Spiritual solution as the only possible one 



19 

of the enigma involved in the phenomena, as he observed 
them. 

To all such statements we have, first, the plain and ready 
answer, that we do not attempt to pass judgment on manifesta- 
tions which we ourselves have not observed. All that we can 
vouch for is the result of our own observation. More cannot 
be demanded of us. 

Secondly, experience has shown us that with every possible 
desire on the part of Spiritualists to tell the truth, the whole 
truth, and nothing but the truth, concerning marvelous 
phenomena, it is extremely difficult to do so. Be it distinctly 
understood that we do not for an instant impute wilful perver- 
sion of the truth. All that we mean is that, for two reasons, 
it is likely that the marvels of Spiritualism will be, by believers 
in them, incorrectly and insufficiently reported. 

The first reason is to be found in the mental condition of 
the observer ; if he be excited or deeply moved his account 
cannot but be affected, and essential details will surely be dis- 
torted. 

For a second reason, note how hard it is to give a truth- 
ful account of any common, everyday occurrence. The diffi- 
culty is increased a hundred-fold, when what we would tell, 
partakes of the wonderful. Who can truthfully describe a 
juggler's trick ? Who would hesitate to affirm that a watch, 
which never left the eye-sight for an instant, was broken by 
the juggler on an anvil ; or that a handkerchief was burned 
before our eyes? We all know the juggler does not break 
the watch, and does not burn the handkerchief. We 
watched most closely the juggler's right hand, while the trick 
was done with his left. The one minute circumstance has 
been omitted that would have converted the trick into no- 
trick. It is likely to be the same in the accounts of most 
of the wonderful phenomena of Spiritualism. 



20 

For these two reasons, we laid down for ourselves at the 
start that in cases demanding close observation we would 
endeavor to have as many members as possible of the Com- 
mission present at every seance. In dealing with phenomena, 
where all ordinary methods of investigation are excluded, we 
perceived clearly that our best resource lay in having the 
largest possible number of observers. 

In dismissing this subject of Independent Slate Writing, 
we repeat, what we think Spiritualists will generally grant, 
that this phenomenon can be performed by legerdemain. 
The burden of proof that it is not so performed rests with 
the Mediums. This proof the Mediums will neither offer 
themselves, nor permit others to obtain. Investigators, 
therefore, are forced to bring to bear their own powers of 
close observation, sharpened and educated by experience. 
Be it remembered that what we have here stated applies 
solely to the process whereby the communication is written 
on the slate; with the substance of the communication, 
whether pertinent answers to questions, or dreary platitudes, 
we are not now dealing. Whether these answers be ascribed 
to Spirits, or to what is termed clairvoyance, they would be 
none the less true or false if delivered orally by the Medium ; 
all that we are sure of is that the writing down of these com- 
munications, be their substance what it may, is performed in a 
manner so closely resembling fraud as to be indistinguishable 
from it. It would be a mere matter of opinion that all Inde- 
pendent Slate Writing is fraudulent; what is not a matter of 
opinion is the conviction, which we have unanimously reached 
as a Commission, of its non-spiritual character in every instance 
that has come before us. 

An eminent professional juggler performed, in the presence 
of three of our Commission, some Independent Slate Writing 
far more remarkable than any which we have witnessed 



21 

with Mediums. In broad daylight, a slate perfectly clean on 
both sides was, with a small fragment of slate pencil, held under 
a leaf of a small ordinary table around which we were 
seated; the fingers of the juggler's right hand pressed the 
slate tight against the*underside of the leaf, while the thumb 
completed the pressure, and remained in full view while clasp- 
ing the leaf of the table. Our eyes never for a fraction of a 
second lost sight of that thumb; it never moved; and yet 
in a few minutes the slate was produced, covered on both 
sides with writing. Messages were there, and still are 
there, for we preserved the slate, written in French, Spanish, 
Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Gujerati, and ending with ' Ich 
bin ein Geist, und liebe mein Lagerbier.' We were utterly 
baffled. For one of our number the juggler subsequently 
repeated the trick and revealed its every detail. 

We request your honorable body to note that this Report is 
preliminary and that we do not consider our investigations in 
this department as finally closed, but hold ourselves ready to 
continue them whenever favorable circumstances arise. 

To the subject of 'Spirit-rappings' we have devoted some 
time and attention, but our investigations have not been 
sufficiently extensive to warrant us at present in offering any 
positive conclusions. The difficulty attending the investi- 
gation of this mode of Spiritualistic manifestation is increased 
by the fact, familiar to physiologists, that sounds of varying in- 
tensity may be produced in almost any portion of the human 
body by voluntary muscular action. To determine the exact 
location of this muscular activity is at times a matter of 
delicacy. 

What we can say, thus far, with assurance is that, in 
the cases which have come under our observation, the 



22 

theory of the purely physiological origin of the sounds has 
been sustained by the fact that the Mediums were invariably, 
and confessedly, cognizant of the rappings whenever they oc- 
curred, and could at once detect any spurious rappings, how- 
ever exact and indistinguishable to all other ears might be 
the imitation. For the details of the investigation which 
guided us to this conclusion we refer to the Appendix. 

There are among Mediums certain Specialists, whose alleged 
Spiritual manifestations we have endeavoured to investigate, 
not always successfully, as, for instance, in the case of Mr. "W. M. 
Keeler, through whose Mediumship 'Spiritual Photographs' 
are produced. The ' conditions' which this Medium demanded 
would have made any attempt at investigation a mere waste 
of time, and his terms of remuneration were, in addition, as we 
have before mentioned, prohibitory and suggestive of unwil- 
lingness to come before the Commission. In these days of ' Com- 
posite Photography ' it is worse than childish to claim a Spir- 
itual source for results which can be obtained at any time by 
any tyro in the art. Mr. Keeler's letter- will be found in the 
Appendix. 

We were more successful in procuring a seance with Mr. 
Keeler's brother, whose Mediumship manifests itself by the 
materialization of a right hand behind a low screen, in 
front of which the Medium sits, with his face alone visible, his 
entire person being concealed by black muslin. The screen 
is stretched across a corner of a room to about the height of 
the back of the Medium's head, as he sits in front of it. The 
lights are lowered, and in a few minutes various instruments, 
musical and otherwise, which had been previously placed on 
a small table in the corner enclosed by the screen, are heard 
to sound, a drum is beaten, a guitar is played, etc. The music 



23 

is interspersed with flashes of hand darting and waving above 
the screen to the right of the Medium. The hand, when 
shaken, was found to be a right one. As a proof that 
the hand is Spiritual and not that of the Medium, the latter 
requests one of the visitors at the seance to sit beside 
him on his right, and also to be covered to the chin with the 
same black muslin under which all the Medium, except his 
head, is concealed. This visitor's bare left forearm is grasped 
by the Medium, as he says, with both his hands, and this 
pressure of the Medium's two hands on the visitor's arm is 
never relaxed, as the visitor readily testifies. The proof seems, 
therefore, conclusive that the hand which plays the instru- 
ments behind the screen is not the Medium's, and hence must 
be a materialized Spirit. The trick is simple and highly decep- 
tive, as any one can prove for himself by requesting a blind- 
folded friend to bare the left arm to the elbow, then let the 
experimenter grasp this bared arm, near the wrist, with the 
third and fourth fingers of his left hand, closing them around 
it tightly, and as he does so, asking the owner of the arm 
to note that this is his left hand, then let the experi- 
menter, without relaxing this hold, stretch the remaining 
fingers and thumb up the arm as far as he can, and while 
clasping it with his thumb and forefinger, remark that this 
second pressure comes from his other hand. The conviction 
is complete in the mind of the blindfolded friend that he feels 
the grasp of two hands, whereas only the left hand of the 
experimenter has grasped his arm, and the right hand is free 
to beat a drum or play a zither. After this test, which is 
patent to all, we can dismiss the theory of a Spiritual origin 
of the hand behind Mr. Keeler's screen. To forestall the 
discovery by Mr. Keeler's companion of this trick, and to pre- 
vent its detection by simply feeling with his free right hand 
after the suppositious hands of the Medium, which are grasping 



24 

his left forearm, a second visitor is requested to share the dis- 
comfort of the muslin envelope, and to sit on the right of the 
first visitor and to hold the latter 's truant right hand with his 
left hand, while his right is exposed to view outside the cur- 
tain. Again we refer to the Appendix for the minutes of 
our meeting. 

We had a seance also with Messrs. Rothermel and Powell, of 
whom the former is the Medium, the latter, acting mainly as a 
reservoir of psychic force, guides and directs the seance. In 
this case the Medium's Spiritual manifestations, as well as his 
material arrangements, are similar to those of Mr. Keeler, 
except that instead of having a visitor whose arm may be 
grasped, Mr. Rothermel's hands are fastened in his lap by 
bands of tape passed around his legs and sewed to his clothes. 
After the black curtain had hid the hands from our sight we 
were not again allowed to examine them except in the most 
hurried and superficial way, but, even in the brief inspection 
which was permitted, a glance was sufficient to show that the 
tape had been tampered with. The close of the seance was 
announced by the sound of clipping scissors, and by Mr. Roth- 
ermel's exclamation, while still concealed, that the Spirits were 
cutting him loose. We had no means of knowing whether the 
tape was cut at the beginning of the seance or not. When the 
muslin envelope was removed, Mr. Rothermel's hands were 
certainly free. The bands were cut, and we had no difficulty 
in believing that the hands which were dexterous enough to 
play the zither with very remarkable skill, under such condi- 
tions, behind the curtain, were deft enough to sever the cords. 

Our seances with Mrs. Maud E. Lord were acknowledged by 
the Medium herself to be altogether unsatisfactory. This is 
much to De regretted. Mrs. Lord is one of the few professional 



25 

Mediums whose excellence is acknowledged by all Spiritualists 
alike, and who, in her attitude towards the Commission, dis- 
played every desire to aid a full and complete investigation into 
the manifestations peculiar to her Mediumship, and further- 
more, without remuneration. 

In conclusion, we beg to express our regret that thus far we 
have not been cheered in our investigations by the discovery of 
a single novel fact ; but, undeterred by this discouragement, we 
trust with your permission to continue them with what thor- 
oughness our future opportunities may allow, and with minds 
as sincerely and honestly open, as heretofore, to conviction. 

"We desire to call especial attention to Professor Fullerton's 
Report in the Appendix of his interviews with Professors Fech- 
ner, Scheibner and "Weber, the surviving colleagues of Profes- 
sor Zoellner in his experiments with Dr. Henry Slade. 

And also to an investigation of the power of Mediums to 
answer the questions contained in 'Sealed Envelopes.' 

"William Pepper, 
Joseph Leidy, 
George A. Koenig, 
George S. Fullerton, 
Robt. Ellis Thompson, 
Horace Howard Furness, 
Coleman Sellers, 
James W. "White, 
Calvin B. Knerr, 
S. "Weir Mitchell. 

University of Pennsylvania, 
May, 1887. 



APPENDIX. 



Soon after the appointment of the Seybert Commission, I, as 
Secretary, was asked to make a collection of the best representative 
literature of Spiritualism, and to prepare for the use of the Commission 
a sketch of the rise, progress, present condition, doctrines and alleged 
phenomena of this belief, as well as an account of previous investi- 
gations, similar to the one contemplated by ourselves. For a number 
of months I busied myself diligently with this work, and finally read 
my sketch before the Commission, at a meeting at which Mr. Thomas R. 
Hazard, the well-known Spiritualist, was present as our guest. I had 
at this time seen scarcely anything of Spiritualism, but was much im- 
pressed with what I had read, and certainly in a fully receptive atti- 
tude towards phenomena supported by so much apparently strong 
testimony. Mr. Hazard declared himself quite satisfied with the tone 
of the paper, saying that he had come expecting to hear something 
very different, but that it was fair and unbiased. I mention these 
facts to show that my present opinion on the subject was not assumed 
at the outset, but has been arrived at gradually, and is based upon my 
own observations. 

I have been forced to the conclusion that Spiritualism, as far at 
least as it has shown itself before me (and I give no opinion upon what 
has not fallen within my observation), presents the melancholy spec- 
tacle of gross fraud, perpetrated upon an uncritical portion of the 
community ; that the testimony of such persons as to what they see 
is almost valueless, if they are habitually as inaccurate as they have 
been at the seances at which I have been present with them; and 
that there is an unwillingness on the part of Mediums to have 
their powers freely and thoroughly investigated — a fact which makes 
any investigation of Spiritualism difficult and expensive. My opin- 
ions are not based exclusively upon what I have seen and recorded 
in my work with my colleagues, but also upon observations made at 
various times in a private capacity ; and there is but one conclusion to 
be appended to them all. I subjoin notes of seances, recorded by 
myself as Secretary of the Commission. Their somewhat disjointed 
form arises from the fact that I have not thought it .desirable to make 

(26) 



27 

changes in my notes, except such as were necessary in taking the 
Records, which are of value as evidence, out of their contextual con- 
nection with records of business meetings and matters of no interest 
to the public. Nothing which could be looked upon as evidence has 
been purposely suppressed. I have intentionally left out a description 
of several things which we have been unable to use, and which would 
have merely swelled our Records ; as, for example, the account of our 
sealing slates for the experiments with Dr. Slade, he afterwards having 
refused to have anything to do with slates sealed by us. My notes 
were made during the seances, or as soon as possible after them. They 
were arranged and copied in no case later than two days after. Ex- 
planations and additions, which do not belong to the original Records, 
but have been inserted later, are put in brackets. 

For a justification of the opinion of Spiritualism expressed above, I 
refer to the Records which follow. 

Geo. S. Fulleeton. 



March 13th, 1884. 

On Thursday, March 13th, 1884, the Commission met at 508 S. 16th 
Street, at 8 p.m., for the examination of Mrs. S. E. Patterson, Spiritual- 
istic Medium. 

For the first test, a small piece of slate pencil was placed within a 
double slate, and the leaves fastened together with a screw, which passed 
through one wooden rim into the other. The Spirit-writing upon the 
slate should be indicated by the pencil appearing upon the outside of 
the slate. The slate was laid upon the Medium's lap for one hour and 
a-half without results. 

Meanwhile the Medium wrote what purported to be messages from 
several Spirits upon slips of paper, the handwriting varying with each 
message. One message was signed Elias Hicks, another Lucretia 
Mott, another signed H. S. was compared with a message from Mr. 
Henry Seybert to Mr. T. R. Hazard the day before. The initials were 
somewhat different. 

The Commission sat in a circle, the Medium at a small table with 
folding leaves. 

One communication, signed E. H., declared that the person sitting 
opposite Mr. Hazard (Mr. Furness) was endowed with great Medium- 
istic powers. 

The writing failing to appear on the slate it was opened, and Dr. 
Ijeidy, having written upon a slip of paper a question, enclosed it in 
the slate, which was again fastened. 



28 

After half an hour's waiting, no results being obtained, the Com- 
mission addressed some questions to the Medium and then adjourned. 

The Medium described her sensations during the automatic writing 
as a constriction at the wrist. 

She declared that she had no knowledge of what she wrote, was not 
distracted by noises, etc. 

(Mr. Furness and Mr. Fullerton, however, noticed that she, when 
interrupted, glanced back over what she had previously written before 
continuing.) 

She could not go into the trance state. Just before adjournment the 
Medium laid her hands upon the table and tried to produce " raps," 
but did not succeed. 

Has been a Spiritualist for nine or ten years, but has always been 
possessed of unusual powers. As a child saw visions, etc. 

Declares that she is most successful as a Slate Writer. 

Geo. S. Fullerton, 
Secretary. 



Wednesday, March 19th, 1884. 

The Commision met at 508 S. 16th Street, at 8 p.m. 

Present: Dr. Leidy, Professor Koenig, Mr. Furness, Mr. Fullerton 
and Mr. Hazard. The Medium was Mrs. S. E. Patterson. 

Mr. Furness brought two new double slates, which could be fastened 
by a screw. 

The Medium cut a small piece of slate pencil and enclosed it in a 
double slate (one of those brought by Mr. Furness), into which was 
also put a paper upon which Dr. Leidy had written a question. The 
slate was then fastened with a screw. 

Dr. Koenig also wrote a question, which was enclosed in the other 
slate, the slate being screwed up by Mr. Furness. 

The Medium then placed both slates upon her lap, and partially 
under the table. A portion of the time the upper slate was between 
the palms of her hands, the back of the lower hand resting on the lower 
slate. Then one hand was placed upon each slate, the two being placed 
together. 

No results having been obtained after waiting twenty minutes, one 
of the new slates was laid aside, and the Medium's old slate, with a 
piece of pencil in it, laid upon the remaining new slate in the Medium's 
lap. 

The Medium held from time to time a lead pencil in one hand, but 
was not moved to write. 



29 

The Medium declared that when writing appears upon the slate in 
her lap she feels a shock, but no other sensation. 

Two Spirit Photographs were exhibited by the Medium. In one the 
Spirit was her own mother. The Spirit in each appeared as a white 
apparition behind a person seated in the foreground. 

The slates remained in the lap of the Medium one hour and twenty 
minutes. No manifestations were produced during the evening. 

The Commission adjourned to a room at the Social Art Club for 
conference. 

The above notes of the evening's session were read by the Secretary 
and approved. 

It was resolved to meet again on the evening of Wednesday, March 
26th, for the next session. 

Geo. S. Fullerton, 

Secretary. 



March 26th, 1884. 

The Commission met on Wednesday, March 26th, at 7.30 P.M., at 
1117 Callowhill Street. 

Present: Dr. Leidy, Mr. Furness, Mr. Fullerton and Mr. T. R. 
Hazard. The Medium was Mr. Fred. Briggs. 

The Medium gave the following answers to Dr. Leidy 's questions: 

1. Has been a Medium since seven years of age. Now 22 years old. 

2. Before seven years of age could see visions, etc., but did not com- 
municate with Spirits. 

3. Was born in Boston. Lived there when not on journeys. 

4. His parents had no such powers. 

5. His grandfather was a West India importer, his father had no 
business. 

6. Educated in Middleboro and Bridgewater, Mass. 

7. His family, Baptists. 

8. He can communicate with Spirits best 

a. At night, or in the evening. 

b. In cold or snowy weather. 

c. In dry weather. 

d. When in a healthy condition. 

9. When in communication with Spirits feels nervous, but cannot 
describe the feeling. 

The Medium had on the table two single slates which could be laid 
upon each other. The table was about three and a-half feet square, 
and covered with a cloth. 



30 

The light was kept rather dim. 

(The Medium explained later in the evening that writing is best 
produced in the dark, because dark is negative, light positive, and 
negative conditions are most favorable to communication.) 

Mr. Furness had brought two folding slates, which could be fastened 
with a screw. 

Dr. Leidy and Mr. Furness and the Medium each held a double 
slate under the table. 

Mr. Fullerton asked a question as requested, but received no answer 
from the Spirits. 

Some scratching was now heard under the table. 

The Medium took the slate held by Mr. Furness (one not screwed 
or fastened by hinges), and it was held under the table by Mr. Fur- 
ness, Mr. Hazard and Mr. Briggs. 

The Medium seemed much excited, spoke rapidly, etc., and was 
so much overcome that he dropped the slate (one brought by Mr. 
Furness) which he was holding under the table with his left hand, and 
left it lying on the floor under the table. 

At 8 o'clock Dr. Koenig came in. The slate held by the Medium, 
Mr. Furness and Mr. Hazard, was held in Mr. Hazard's lap, and some 
taps were heard. (Mr. Furness afterwards produced taps precisely 
similar by rubbing the side of his finger slowly along the side of the 
slate.) 

No writing having been obtained, the Medium declared that he 
alone would hold the slate, as the magnetism of Mr. Furness was in- 
jurious. 

Again we were invited to ask questions. Dr. Leidy asked : ' When 
and where did you die ? ' No answer. 

The Medium asked Mr. Furness if his name were not Furness. (Mr. 
Hazard had seen the Medium before, and informed him that the Com- 
mission was coming.) 

Mr. Furness now put his hand under the table on the hand of the 
Medium, which was pressing the double slate (not the screwed one) up 
against the table. 

Mr. Furness declared that he heard a certain buzzing noise. The 
slate being taken out, there was found written on the inside of the 
under slate : 

I will help 

you all 

R. Dale Owen 

and something that looked like " Henry Furness is here." 



31 

The slate on the floor being examined, there was found on the out- 
side (it was a screw-slate) 

I am here with you 

I will help you 
i R. Dale Owen. 

Some other illegible marks were found on the slate. 

Nothing was obtained on the inside of either screw-slate. 

The handwriting on the two slates, purporting to be from R. Dale 
Owen, was much alike. 

The Medium now took hold of Mr. Hazard's hand, and went into 
trance, personating Esther Hazard, a deceased daughter of Mr. Hazard. 
He (the Medium) made convulsive motions, trembled, etc., and while 
in this state predicted that Mr. Fullerton would receive a very pleas- 
ing letter on Saturday next — said that he should come to the Medium 
for advice. [No such letter was received on that date by Mr. Fullerton.] 

He also declared that Dr. Koenig had brought with him a Spirit 
named August. 

He declared Ponto, White-feather, Red Jacket and Thomas Paine 
to be present. 

(The Medium called " White-feather " he, Mr. Hazard objecting 
that White-feather was a woman.) 

The light was then turned out, and all hands laid upon the table. 
Mr. Furness laid one of his hands upon one of the Medium's and upon 
one of Mr. Hazard's. (The Medium afterwards asserted that Mr. 
Furness had held both his hands. But Mr. Furness was positive that 
he held only one.) Mr. Hazard was touched several times about the 
face. Mr. Furness was touched on the cheek and on his ear-trumpet 
and Mr. Fullerton was struck on the head by a paper thrown from the 
other side of the table, and touched once on the back of his left hand 
by what felt like human fingers. 

There were no more manifestations. 

The Committee adjourned to Dr. Leidy's house for conference. The 

above notes were read and approved. 

Geo. S. Fullerton, 

Secretary. 



April 8th, 1884. 
On Tuesday evening, April 8th, Dr. Leidy and Mr. Furness held 
another seance with the Medium formerly examined, Mrs. Pat- 



32 

terson. The slates used belonged to the Medium, and were, as she told 
them, in daily, almost hourly use ; the frame of one of them was far 
from sound, and the hole which admitted the screw was more than well 
worn. Within these slates, after being held for a long while by both 
hands of the Medium under the table, two or three barely legible words 
appeared. The screw was, by no means, as tight after the writing as 
before. This fact, together with the prolonged concealment, rendered 
it impossible to attach any real importance to the attempt to write, as 
far as could be made out, the name of Henry Seybert. 

Under the same conditions our colleague, Mr. Sellers, produced writ- 
ing for us very satisfactorily. 

Geo. S. Fullerton, 

Secretary. 



April 17th, 1884. 
On Thursday evening, April 17th, 1884, a sitting was held by Mrs. 
Patterson with Dr. Koenig, Mr. Fullerton and Mr. Hazard. The Me- 
dium declared herself unwell. No results were obtained. The session 
was in Mrs. Patterson's room at No. 508 S. 16th Street. 

Geo. S. Fullerton, 

Secretary. 



May 31st, 1884. 

On Saturday, May 31st, 1884, at 8 p.m., the Commission met at the 
house of the Provost, 1811 Spruce Street, for the purpose of sealing a 
slate to be left with the Medium, Mrs. Patterson, who was to try to pro- 
cure independent writing upon the inside surfaces. There were present 
Dr. Pepper, Mr. Furness, Professor Thompson and Mr. Fullerton. 
Mr. Furness brought the slate and seals. The slate was the double one 
used in our former tests, hinged, and fastening with a screw. A small 
piece of pencil was enclosed in the slate, which was perfectly clean, and 
the slate was screwed up by Dr. Pepper. The direction of the cut in 
the screw-head was marked by a scratch on the wood at the end of the 
slate. It was nearly parallel with the long diameter of the slate. Mr. 
Furness then tied the slate with red tape, passing the tape longitudi- 
nally and transversely around the middle of the slates. 

The first seal (red wax) was on the knot, which was over the under 
end of the screw. The end of the screw projected a little through the 
wood, but was covered by the seal. The second seal was over the ends 
of the tape. The head of the screw was also covered by a seal, and 



33 

three (3) additional seals were affixed on the outside edges of the 
slates, where they were crossed by the tape. 

One of the three impressions at the edges of the slates was made by 
Professor Thompson's right thumb. [A test was then proposed by 
Professor Thompson, which the Commission does not feel at liberty to 
make public, as it has not yet been carried out, and publicity may 
interfere with its success.] 

Geo. S. Fullerton, 

Secretary. 



November 5th, 1884. 

The Commission met at the house of Mr. Furness, 222 West "Wash- 
ington Square, on November 5th, 1884, at 8 p.m. There were present 
Dr. Wm. Pepper and Mrs. Pepper, Dr. Leidy, Dr. Koenig, Prof. 
Thompson, Mr. Furness, Mr. George S. Pepper, Miss Logan, Mr. Ful- 
lerton, Mr. Coleman Sellers, and the Medium, Mrs. Margaret Fox 
Kane, who was the guest of Mr. Furness at the time. 

Those present seated themselves around an oak dining table, some 
eight feet by four and a-half feet and the usual height. Mrs. Kane 
was at one end of the table and Mr. Sellers at the other. The 
Medium sat with her feet partly under the table, and consequently 
concealed from most of those present — her feet were hidden also by 
her dress. 

Dr. Leidy asked the question : " Is any Spirit present ?" 

Ans. Three raps. 

Dr. Leidy : " Will you confer with the man to left of the Medium?" 

Ans. Two raps. (No.) 

Dr. Leidy : " To the right ?" 

Ans. Three raps. 

Professor Thompson (who was the person indicated) : " Is the Spirit 
male?" 

Ans. Three raps. 

"Will it answer to the alphabet ?" 

Three raps. The alphabet was called and " Henry Seybert " 
spelled out. 

Mr. Sellers : " Will Henry Seybert make the raps at this end of the 
table?" 

Ans. No. 

" Is he satisfied with the Commission ?" 

Five raps were given for the alphabet ; Professor Thompson called 
it ; raps spelled out : 



34 

" I will be satisfied before the investigation is through." 
Mr. Sellers : " Does Mr. Seybert know the names of the Commission?" 
Ans. Three raps. 

" Does he know who is now speaking ?" 
Three raps. 

Mr. Sellers then pointed to the letters of the alphabet, which he had 
written in order on a sheet of paper, and raps spelled out : 

Charles Ceri. 

Mrs. Kane then tried standing at some distance from the table, with 
her hands on the back of a chair ; there were some raps seemingly near 
or under the Medium. 

Raps were produced as members of the Committee stood with the 
Medium around the desk in the library, and close to a book-case. 
Raps were produced according to the Medium on the glass door of a 
book-case, upon which Mr. Sellers placed his hand. Mr. Sellers felt no 
vibration on the glass, but raps were heard somewhere in the vicinity. 

The Committee then returned to the dining-room and the Medium 
wrote upon a sheet of paper the following : 

" Friend Pepper : I am happy to meet you here to-night. I have 
not forgotten my promise to you, Henry Seybert." 

The paper had to be held to the light and read from the obverse 
side, as the message was written from right to left. 

Mr. Geo. Pepper : " Do you remember the year in which you made 
the promise ?" 

The answer given in same way was : " It was in the year in which 
my Spirit left the body. H. S. Call the alphabet, H. S." 

Dr. Pepper called the alphabet — the sentence " Let Friend Pepper 
call the alphabet" was rapped out. Mr. Geo. Pepper called the 
alphabet : the letters hand were rapped out, and the communication 
ceased. 

The Medium wrote then as before: "Friend Pepper, meet me 
again." 

It was asked whether Mr. Seybert would meet us on the next 
evening? 

Ans. Three raps. 

The Committee adjourned at 9.30 o'clock to meet again at 8 o'clock 
on the next evening at the same place. 

Geo. S. Fullerton. 

Secretary. 



35 

The following stenographic report of the meeting of November 6th, 
1884, has been read and approved by the Commission before being 
entered upon this book. 

The few additions which were made when it was read, appear as 
foot notes. The report was approved as excellent. 

(A Record from the notes of the Stenographer — Mr. J. I. Gilbert.) 

Philada., November 6th, 1884. 

The Committee reconvened this day, at 8 o'clock p.m., at the resi- 
dence of Mr. H. H. Furness, when the investigation of the Spirit Rap- 
pings, in the presence of Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane as Medium, was 
resumed. 

The persons present were the following : 

Of the Committee — Dr. Leidy, Mr. Furness, Dr. Koenig, Mr. Fuller- 
ton, Mr. Coleman Sellers, and by invitation of the Committee, Mr. Geo. 
S. Pepper. 

The Medium — Mrs. Kane. 

The Stenographer — Mr. Gilbert. 

The company promptly repaired to the dining-room, and there 
gathered around a common pine-wood table, consisting solely of its sup- 
ports and top, which had been specially provided, in compliance with 
the direction of the Medium. The dimensions of the table, approxi- 
mately stated, are as follows: height, three feet; length, four feet; 
width, two and a-half feet. 

The 'Spirit Rappings' during the evening, aside from those heard 
during the test with the glass tumblers, were apparently confined to the 
floor-space in the immediate vicinity of, and directly beneath the table 
described — around which the company were seated in the order here 
stated. Mr. Sellers (to whom had been deputed the duty of eliciting 
the responses) occupied the chair at the end of the table more remote 
from the Stenographer. Next, upon Mr. Sellers' right and at the 
side of the table, sat Mr. Pepper, and Mr. Furness in the adjoining 
seat. The first chair on the side of the table to the left of Mr. Sellers 
was occupied by the Medium, and the remaining chair on the same 
side by Mr. Fullerton. At the near end of the table, Dr. Leidy and 
Dr. Koenig were seated. The Committee, with one exception, in ac- 
cordance with a requirement imposed by the Medium, rested their 
hands upon the table and fixed their minds upon the subject of the 
rappings. The exception was Dr. Koenig, who, being seated at a dis- 
tance of three feet from the table, could not conveniently comply with 



36 

the requirement. After the expiration of some twenty minutes, the 
Medium requested Dr. Koenig to place his hands upon the table, and 
he promptly complied with the request and moved his chair closer to 
that of Dr. Leidy, thus depriving himself of any facilities of observa- 
tion of the space beneath the table. 

The Stenographer was at a table about four feet from the circle of 
the Committee. 

The lengths of the intervals between the questions addressed to the 
Spirits and the responses thereto, were computed by the audible second- 
strokes of a clock in an adjoining apartment ; the periods of waiting 
being necessarily brief in view of the assurance of the Medium (as set 
forth in its proper place in the Report) that " When the raps come, 
they come right away." 

The " Spirit Rappings " varied materially in quality and character, 
being at times faintly, and at other times distinctly audible. 

The record of the Investigation is as follows : 

Mr. Sellers : Is any Spirit present now ? 

Three raps — faint and partly indistinct — are almost instantly audible. 
The raps apparently emanate from the floor-space directly beneath, or 
in the immediate vicinity of the table. This remark is applicable to 
all the rappings during the seance at the pine table. 

The Medium (interpreting the sounds) : That was " Yes." 

Mr. Sellers (aside): They sounded like three. 

The raps are immediately repeated with more distinctness. 

Mr. Sellers (aside): There are three, and they are quite distinct. 

(Resuming): Is the Spirit the same one that was present last night? 

Three raps, apparently identical with those last heard, are again 
audible. j 

Mr. Sellers (aside): It says it is the same Spirit. 

(Resuming) : I presume then it is Henry Seybert ? 

(No response.) Is it Henry Seybert? 

Three raps — distinct and positive. 

Mr. Sellers : You promised last evening to give a communication to 
Mr. Pepper. Are you able to communicate with him now ? 

Two raps — comparatively feeble. 

The Medium (interpreting): One, two: that means "not now." 

Mr. Sellers (repeating): "Not now." 

The Medium (reflectively) : But probably before he leaves. 

Three raps — quickly, distinctly and instantly given. 

The Medium: He said "Yes," " before he leaves." (To Mr. Sel- 
lers) : You asked that question, I think ? 



37 

Mr. Sellers : Yes. (Resuming) : Will you communicate with him 
before Mr. Pepper leaves to-night? 

Three raps — instantaneous, quick and vigorous. The sounds in this 
instance are four times repeated, the repetitions being in quick succes- 
sion and apparently without variation in quality or character. 

Mr. Sellers (addressing his associates) : It has been very clearly 
shown to-night that certain sounds of greater or less volume have been 
produced. We have heard the sounds. We are conscious that they 
are raps. It is exceedingly important, in deference to the Medium 
herself, that we should prove that she has nothing to do with the pro- 
duction of the sounds other than in a Spiritualistic capacity. I would 
like to ask her if there is any test that she herself can propose which 
would be capable of satisfying us that she does not produce the sounds. 

The Medium : I could name a great many tests, but they might not 
be satisfactory to you ; for instance, the one of standing on glass tum- 
blers, where the raps are produced on the floor. 

Mr. Sellers: Will the raps be produced under such circumstances? 

The Medium : I cannot say that they will be, any more than I can 
say that they will be produced through the use of the table. In fact, 
they are not so readily produced sometimes. 

Mr. Sellers : I understand your position. But you say that there 
are cases in which, when the Medium is standing upon glass, the sounds 
are produced. 

The Medium : Oh, yes. I mention that — the producing through 
glass — as one of the most difficult of tests. 

Mr. Sellers: Then the sounds will be just beneath your feet, will 
they? 

The Medium : Well, they will seem to be. They may be on the 
side. 

After a brief interval, during which Mr. Furness absented himself to 
procure glass tumblers, the colloquy with the Medium was resumed. 

Mr. Sellers : While we are waiting for those tumblers, will you re- 
peat the experiment of last night, that of standing near the table and 
not touching it, to see if the same character of sounds then produced 
can be again heard ? Last evening we had a very satisfactory exhibi- 
tion of that. 

The Medium: Yes. But we have to keep to a certain condition; 
that is, you are not to break. For instance, if you will all stand up 
and stand touching the table — all of us — until we get started, it will be 
some assistance. 

All of the gentlemen and the Medium rise and remain standing with 
their hands in contact with the table. 



38 

The Medium (continuing) : This is a test, something that I have not 
gone through with since I was a little child almost. 

Mr. Sellers (after an interval of waiting) : There seem to be no raps. 
(Another short interval.) Now, Mr. Seybert, cannot you produce some 
raps? 

Eighty seconds here elapsed with no response, when the Medium 
made an observation which was partly inaudible at the Reporter's 
seat, the purport of which was that the Spirit communications are some- 
times retarded or facilitated by a compliance by the listeners with 
certain conditions. Another interval of probably two minutes elapsed, 
when the Medium suggested to Dr. Leidy to place his hands upon the 
table. The suggestion was complied with. 

Mr. Sellers inquires of the Medium whether a change in her position, 
with regard to the table, would do any good. 

The Medium : I will change positions with you. 

The change was made accordingly, but without result, and another 
period of waiting followed. 

The Medium (to Dr. Leidy) : Suppose you ask some questions. You 
may have some friend who will respond. 

Dr. Leidy: Is any Spirit present whom I know, or who knows me? 

After a pause of ten seconds, three light raps are heard. 

Dr. Leidy: Who am I? 

The Medium explains that the responses by rappings are mainly in- 
dicative only of affirmation or negation. 

Dr. Leidy : Will you repeat your taps to indicate that you are pres- 
ent yet? 

Three taps are heard. 

Mr. Sellers : Those are very clearly heard. 

The Medium (to Dr. Leidy) : Ask if that is Mr. Seybert? 

Dr. Leidy: Is Mr. Seybert present? 

Three raps — very feeble. 

Dr. Leidy (to Mr. Sellers) : Was there an answer to that ? 

Mr. Sellers: There was. The answer was three raps. (After an 
interval, in which no response is received) : There seem to be no further 
communications. I suggest that the test with the glass tumblers be 
now tried. 

Upon the suggestion of the Medium, the test referred to was momen- 
tarily deferred, and Mr. Sellers made this inquiry : 

It is proposed that the Medium shall stand upon tumblers. Are we 
likely to have any demonstration? 

Three raps — promptly given, though feeble in delivery and but 
faintly audible. 



39 

The Medium : There were three — a kind of tardy assent. 

Mr. Sellers (to the Medium) : As if the Spirits might or might not 
communicate? 

The Medium : Well, that a trial might be made. 

Three raps are here again instantly heard — the characteristics of 
the sounds in this instance 1 being rapidity and energy, or positiveness. 

The Medium: That is a quick answer. 

At this point attention is directed to the first of a series of experi- 
ments with four glass tumblers, which are placed together, with the 
bottoms upward, on the carpeted floor, in the centre of a vacant space. 
The Medium stands directly upon these, the heels of her shoes resting 
upon the rear tumblers and the soles upon the front tumblers. The 
Committee co-operate with the Medium, and, in conformity with her 
suggestions, all the men clasp hands and form a semi-circle in front 
of the Medium, the hands of the latter being grasped by the gentlemen 
nearest to her on either side. 

Mr. Sellers (after a notification from the Medium to proceed) : Is 
Mr. Seybert still present? 

No response. 

The Medium : It may be a few minutes before you will hear any 
rapping through these glasses. 

Ten seconds elapse. 

The Medium : This test is a very satisfactory one, if they do it. And 
they have done it a hundred times. 

Five seconds elapse. 

The Medium (to Mr. Furness): The glasses are not placed over 
marble, are they? 

Mr. Furness: No; the floor is of wood. 

Mr. Sellers (after another interval of waiting) informally remarked 
to Mr. Furness: We will wait probably for another minute to see if* 
anything comes. As you know, the Medium claims it is impossible for 
her to control these things — that she is merely one who is operated 
through. 

Another interval expires. 

The Medium : That was a very faint rap. Suppose we change the 
position of the glasses. 

Note by the Stenographer. — No intimation is given that the rap 
here spoken of was heard by any one other than the Medium herself. 
Pursuant to the request just stated, the carpet is removed and the glass 
tumblers are located on the bare floor at a point about five feet distant 
from the place at which the first test was tried. The new location is 



40 

in the centre of a passage way, about three feet in width, between a 
side-board on one side and a wall projection on the other. Its selection 
is apparently, though not specifically, dictated by the position and 
movements of the Medium. The Medium and the Committee resume 
their positions, the former standing on the glasses and the gentlemen 
facing her in a group. 

The Medium: Now, Spirits, will you rap on the floor? 

Thirty seconds here elapsed with no response, when one glass was 
heard to click against another, and the Medium exclaimed, " Oh." 

The Medium (repeating) : Will you rap on the floor ? 

Thirty seconds now elapse without any demonstration. 

The Medium (aside) : It seems to be a failure. They have done it. 

Another click of the glasses, which passes without comment. 

Mr. Sellers : We will have to set down the result of the experiment 
on glass tumblers as negative. It may be well to try it later. 

The Medium (evidently reluctant to abandon the test) : Suppose now, 
as we have gone so far, we kind of form a chain. 

The company retained their positions with hands joined, and the 
Spirits were repeatedly requested to make their presence known — 
Mr. Pepper, at the suggestion of the Medium, asking the Spirit of 
his friend, Henry Seybert, to manifest its presence by one rap — but all 
efforts to elicit such response proved ineffectual. The glasses were 
then removed and the requests were again reiterated, but with a like 
negative result. The Medium finally remarked that she had rarely 
known of failures with the glass tumblers, but it had been a long time 
since she had tried them. She suggested that this branch of the investi- 
gation might be deferred until later. 

The Committee acquiesced in the suggestion and returned to the 
pine table, where, with the Medium, they resume their original posi- 
tions. The Stenographer is seated at the table in the rear of the com- 
pany. 

Mr. Sellers: Now we have returned to the table. Can you indicate 
on the table your presence, Mr. Seybert? 

An interval of sixty-four seconds here followed. 

The Medium: Ask some questions that would interest him in life. 

As Mr. Sellers was repeating to Mr. Pepper the suggestion made by 
the Medium, three raps were heard. 

Mr. Sellers : There is now a communication that he is present. 

Mr. Pepper : Harry, would you like to know something about this 
investigation of Spiritual manifestations, which you had so much at 
heart while living ? 



41 

Three raps — prompt and decided. 

Mr. Sellers : Do you, Mr. Seybert, at the present time, see the per- 
sons present ? Are they visible before you ? 

Two raps — noticeably slow. 

Mr. Sellers (aside) : He says " No, they are not." 

The Medium (interpreting) : Well, that would be too — ' partially.' 

Dr. Koenig: What would that mean — that he only sees some of us, 
or that he sees none of us entirely, but only partially ? 

The Medium : That he sees us, but not clearly. 

Mr. Sellers: Will you please rap the number of the members of 
the Committee who are present at this time? 

Three raps. 

Mr. Sellers : Now, say how many. 

Three raps. 

Mr. Sellers : Are there only three ? 

The Medium (to Mr. Sellers) : That answer was ' Yes,' I think. 

Mr. Sellers: Well, you say you can do it. Please count the 
number of the members of the Committee who are present. 

* Seven raps — very slow, deliberate and distinct. 

Mr. Sellers : Are there seven members of the Committee present ? 

Three raps. 

Mr. Sellers: Are they all seated around one table? 

No response. About forty seconds elapse. 

Mr. Sellers: Are they seated at two tables ? 

f Three raps — quite feeble. 

Mr. Sellers (to his associates) : We still must go back to the one 
thing. The information we receive through these responses is of little 
importance to us compared with the information which we must obtain 
as to whether these sounds are produced by a disembodied Spirit or by 
some living person ; that is, in deference to the Medium. (To Mr. 
Furness) : Do you not think so ? 

Mr. Furness is understood to assent. 

Mr. Sellers (continuing) : We have tried the glass tumblers. We 
have the sounds here. I would ask Mrs. Kane if it is proper for us to 

* When, in answer to Mr. Sellers' question, the raps counted the number of the 
Committee present, the number seven was indicated. This counted in Mr. George 
S. Pepper nd the Stenographer. — G. S. F. 

t When the raps indicated that the members of the Commission sat at two 
tables, this expressly included in the number of the Commission the Stenogra- 
pher, who sat at a different table from that at which the members of the Commis- 
sion were seated at the time of asking the question. — G. S. F 



42 

look below the top of the table at the time the sounds are being pro- 
duced, and in such a way as to see her feet. 

The Medium : Yes, of course, you could do that, but it is not well 
to break, when you are standing, suddenly. As you know, you have 
to conform to the rules, else you will get no rappings. 

Mr. Sellers : What are the rules ? 

The Medium (disconnectedly) : The rules are — every test condition, 
that I am perfectly willing to go through, and have gone through a 
thousand times — at the same time, there are times when you can break 
the rules. So slight a thing as the disjoining of hands may break 
the rules. I do not think the standing on the glass has been fully 
tried. 

Mr. Sellers : We will try that later. 

Mr. Furness (to the Medium — informally) : This investigation is one 
of great importance to us. There is no question about it — we have 
heard these curious sounds. Now, as to whether they come from 
Spirits or not — that would seem to be the very next logical step in our 
inquiry. I think you are entirely at one with us in every possible 
desire to have this phenomenon investigated. 

The Medium: Oh, certainly. But I pledge myself to conform to 
nothing, for — as I said in Europe — I do not even say the sounds are 
from Spirits; and, what is more, it is utterly beyond human power to 
detect them. I do not say they are the Spirits of our departed friends, 
but I leave others to judge for themselves. 

Mr. Furness : Then you have come to the conclusion that they are 
entirely independent of yourself. 

The Medium : No, I do not know that they are entirely independent 
of myself. 

Mr. Furness : Under what conditions can you influence them ? 

The response, which was partly inaudible at the Reporter's seat, was 
understood to be : "I cannot tell." 

Mr. Furness : You say that, in the generality of cases, they are be- 
yond your control ? 

The Medium : Yes. 

Mr. Furness : How in the world shall we test that ? 

The Medium: Well, by 

Mr. Furness : By — what ? Isolating you from the table ? 

The Medium : Yes. 

Mr. Furness (applying his right hand, by her permission, to the 
Medium's head) : Are you ever conscious of any vibration in your 
bones ? 



43 

The Medium : No ; but sometimes it causes an exhaustion, that is, 
under circumstances when the raps do not come freely. 

Mr. Furness : The freer the raps come, the better for you ? 

The Medium : Yes ; the freer the better — the less exhaustion. 

Mr. Sellers: But do you feel now, to-night, any untoward influence 
operating against you ? 

The Medium: No, not to-night, for it takes quite a little while 
before we feel those things. 

Mr. Furness : Do these raps always have that vibratory sound — tr- 
rut — tr-rut — tr-rut ? 

The Medium : Sometimes they vary. 

Mr. Furness : As a general rule I have heard them sound so. 
, The Medium : Every rap has a different sound. For instance, when 
the Spirit of Mr. Seybert rapped, if the sound was a good one, you 
would have noticed that his rap was different from that of another. 
Every one is entirely different from another. 

Mr. Furness: Do you suppose that the present conditions are such 
that you can throw the raps to a part of the room other than that in 
which you are ? 

The Medium : I do not pretend to do that, but I will try to do it. 

Mr. Furness and Dr. Leidy station themselves in the corner 
of the room, diagonally, and most remote from the pine table, at 
which their associates remain seated, with their hands upon the 
table, and 'their minds intent on having the raps produced at the 
corner indicated/ as requested by the Medium, who also remains at 
the table. The Medium asks, 'Will the Spirit rap at the other side 
of the room,' and, after twelve seconds, and again after forty-three 
seconds, repeats the inquiry. No response is received. The experi- 
ment is repeated with Mr. Furness and Dr. Koenig at the corner, but 
with a like negative result. 

At this point the attention of the Committee was again directed to 
the attempted production of the rappings with the Medium standing 
upon the glass tumblers. The lady proceeded to the space between 
the side-board and the wall where the last preceding test had been made, 
and there the tumblers were again arranged. The Medium resumed 
her position upon them, with Doctors Leidy and Koenig, and Messrs. 
Sellers and Furness facing her. 

The Medium : Will the Spirit rap here ? 

Twenty -three seconds elapse. 

Dr. Leidy : Is any Spirit present ? 

An interval of thirty-nine seconds here followed, when the atten- 



44 

tion of the Committee was momentarily diverted by an inquiry ad- 
dressed to Mr. Furness by Mr. Sellers, viz. : Whether a glass plate of 
sufficient strength to bear the weight of the Medium was procurable. 
At this moment the Medium suddenly exclaimed : ' I heard a rap. 
You said, " Get a glass," and there was a rap.' * 

The Medium (repeating for the information of Mr. Furness) : Some- 
body proposed a glass and there were three raps. 

Dr. Koenig inquires of the Medium whether the meaning intended 
to be conveyed by the sounds is that the Spirits desire to have the glass 
plate procured. 

The Medium : I do not know. I know there were raps. (Turn- 
ing to Mr. Sellers, the Medium adds) : They may have been made 
by your heel on the floor but certainly there were sounds. 

Mr. Fullerton : Then it was not the regular triple rap ? 

The Medium : I could not tell. 

Just before calling attention to the alleged rap or raps the Medium 
grasped with her right hand the woodwork of the side-board as 
if for support. It was then that she stated she heard the sounds. 
They were apparently not heard by any one but the Medium. 

Mr. Sellers (addressing the Spirit) : Will you repeat the raps we 
heard just now, assuming that there were some ? 

Ten minutes elapse without a response. 

The Medium: There is no use of my standing longer, for when they 
come at all they come right away. 

Mr. Sellers (after scrutinizing the position of one of the feet of the 
Medium, remarks) : The edge of the heel of the shoe rests on the back 
tumbler. (Assuming a stooping posture for a more prolonged scrutiny, 
he adds) : We will see whether the raps will be produced now. 

The Medium now proposes that all members of the Committee 
shall stand up and join hands. 

Mr. Sellers and his associates accordingly stand, facing the Me- 
dium, with hands joined. Changes in their positions were made by 
some of the gentlemen from time to time, as suggested by the Medium, 
Mr. Pepped and Dr. Koenig being the first to exchange places. This 
occurred after a silence of thirty seconds without any response. 

The Medium : Now, Mr. Seybert, if your Spirit is here, will you 
have the kindness — I knew Mr. Seybert well in life — to rap ? 

Fifteen seconds elapse. 

The Medium : No, he does not seem to respond. 

* No one but the Medium heard this rap. — G. S. F. 



45 

At the suggestion of Mr. Sellers, all the gentlemen approach the 
Medium for the purpose of inducing some acknowledgment by the 
Spirit, and inquiries similar to those already stated are repeated without 
result. The Committee then temporarily abandon this test. 

All present (except the Stenographer) having been seated at the large 
circular table in the centre of the room, Mr. Pepper addressed the 
Spirit of Mr. Seybert, as follows : ' Harry, will you communicate 
with me as you promised to do ? ' 

(Three raps — 'given slowly and deliberately — are heard.) 

Mr. Sellers : Will you communicate with Mr. Pepper by raps or by 
writing ? (No response.) Will you communicate by raps ? 

The Medium (to Mr. Sellers) : Well, my hand does feel like 
writing. Will you give me a piece of paper ? — and maybe they will 
give me some directions. 

Mr. Fullerton (to the Medium) : How does your hand feel when af- 
fected in that way ? 

The Medium : It is a peculiar feeling, like that from taking hold of 
electrical instruments. I do not know but that you might possibly feel 
it in my hand. 

The lady here extended her right hand upon the table toward Mr. 
Fullerton. The latter placed his left hand upon the extended hand of 
the Medium, and subsequently remarked that the pulsation of her wrist 
was a little above the ordinary rate. 

The Medium, ostensibly under Spirit influence, with lead pencil 
in hand proceeded to write two communications from the Spirit 
of the late Henry Seybert. The first of these covered two pages of 
paper of the size of ordinary foolscap. The Medium wrote in large 
characters, with remarkable rapidity, and in a direction from the 
right to the left, or the reverse of ordinary handwriting. The writing, 
consequently, could be read only from the reverse side of the paper and 
by being held up so as to permit the gas-light to pass through it. 

The communications, as deciphered by Mr. Sellers, with the aid 
of Mr. Fullerton and the Medium, were as follows : " You must 
not expect that I can satisfy you beyond all doubt in so short a time as 
you have yet had. I want to give you all in my power, and will do so 
if you will give me a chance. You must commence right in the first 
place or you shall all be disappointed for a much longer time. Princii- 
pis Obsta Sero Medicina Paratum. 

Henry Seybert. 

" Mend the fault in time or we will all be puzzled. 

Henry Seybert." 



46 

The foregoing were understood to be directed to Mr. Pepper, in 
accordance with the assurance given by the Spirit that it would 
communicate with him. 

Subsequently, when the trance condition had apparently dis- 
appeared, the Medium complied with a request to write, as it would 
be read to her, the Latin phrase at the end of the first communication. 
Using the pencil in her right hand, she transcribed slowly and in the 
usual direction from left to right. The style of her handwriting was 
small and comparatively neat. Apparently in every particular her 
writing in this instance was the exact opposite of that made by her 
while in the alleged trance condition. She here stated that, ordinarily, 
she wrote in the same manner in which people generally write, with 
her right hand and from left to right. With respect to her inability 
to transcribe the Latin words until these had been spelled for her, she 
explained that she was not at all familiar with Latin.* 

A member of the Committee, commenting upon a defect in the spell- 
ing of the first of the Latin words in the Spirit communication, sug- 
gested that the error might be accounted for on the hypothesis that 
Mr. Seybert, in life, was accustomed to the use of poor Latin. 

The Medium further explained that her understanding of the second 
communication was that it was a translation of the Latin contained in 
the first. 

The glass tumblers are here again produced- and the Medium takes 
her position upon them, with Mr. Fullerton standing next to her upon 
the right and Mr. Furness to the left. Mr. Sellers remains for some 
moments kneeling on the floor to enable himself better to hear any 
sounds that may be but faintly audible. The Spirits are repeatedly 
importuned by the Medium to produce the rappings, but no response 
is heard until the company is about to abandon the experiment. 
Three raps are then audible. The raps are very light but very distinct. 

Mr. Fullerton states that he heard the raps. 

Mr. Sellers : I heard a sound then, but it seemed as if it was around 
there. (Indicating along the wall immediately in the rear of the 
Medium.) 

The tumblers are here moved further away from the wall and the 
Medium resumes her position upon them. 

Mr. Sellers: Will the Spirit rap again? (No response.) 

The Medium : Were any of you gentlemen acquainted with Mr. 
Seybert in his lifetime ? 

* Mr. George S. Pepper, who was present, said that Mr. Seybert knew no 
Latin.— G. S. F. 



47 

Mr. Fullerton : I saw him several times before his death. If he can 
give an intimation now of anything he said at that time, it will indicate 
that he remembers it. 

A very faint rap is heard. 

The Medium : There i| a rap. It seems to be there again. (Indi- 
cating the spot to which attention was previously called by Mr. Sellers.) 

The Medium again importunes, first, ' Mr. Seybert ' and next ' the 
Spirits' 'to rap;' and the importunities are repeated. Three raps 
are distinctly but faintly heard. 

Mr. Sellers : I heard them. They sounded somewhat like the others, 
not exactly. 

The Medium : I heard one rap, but it is nothing for me to hear 
them ; I want you gentlemen to hear them. 

Mr. Sellers : Probably we will hear them again. 

While Mr. Sellers and Mr. Furness are conversing, several raps are 
heard, though less distinct than the preceding ones. 

The Medium : There they are as though right under the glass. 
(After a silence of forty seconds) : Now I hear them again very light 
— oh, very light. 

Mr. Furness, with the permission of the Medium, places his hand 
upon one of her feet. 

The Medium : There are raps now, strong — yes, I hear them. 

Mr. Furness (to the Medium) : This is the most wonderful thing of 
all, Mrs. Kane, I distinctly feel them in your foot. There is not a 
particle of motion in your foot, but there is an unusual pulsation. 

Mr. Sellers here made some inquiries of the Medium, concerning 
the shoes now worn by her. The replies, which were not direct, are 
here given. 

Mr. Sellers : Are those the shoes which you usually wear ? 

The Medium : I wear all kinds of shoes. 

Mr. Sellers : Are the sounds sometimes produced in your room when 
you have no shoes on. 

The Medium : More or less. They are produced under all circum- 
stances. 

Following the suggestion of the Medium, all present proceed 
through an intervening apartment to the library where the Me- 
dium selects various positions — standing upon a lounge, then upon 
a cushioned chair, next upon a step-ladder and finally upon the side of 
a book-case — but all with a like unsuccessful result, no response by 
rappings being heard. 

Upon an intimation being given by a member of the Committee that 



48 

the Medium may be wearied, the further prosecution of the Investiga- 
tion is temporarily deferred. 

After the examination of Mrs. Kane, and after the Stenographer had 
left, the Commission held a conference, and commissioned Mr. Furness 
to lay before Mrs. Kane the question of continuing or closing the 
investigation, so far as she was concerned. If she were sanguine of 
more satisfactory results at another seance, the Commission was willing 
to prolong the investigation. Geo. S. Fullerton, 

Secretary. 



Below is given the letter from Mr. Furness, explaining why the 
investigation of Mrs. Kane was not continued. The decision to discon- 
tinue it came from her. 

My Dear Fullerton: 

You remember that the members of The Seybert Commission sepa- 
rated last evening with the understanding that we should meet Mrs. 
Kane again this evening, if Mrs. Kane desired it, and that they re- 
quested me to lay the question before her for her decision. 

Accordingly, I had an interview with her -this morning, of which 
the following is as accurate an account as I can remember. 

I told her that the Commission had now had two seances with her, 
and that the conclusion to which they had come is that the so-called 
raps are confined wholly to her person, whether produced by her 
voluntarily or involuntarily they had not attempted to decide; 
furthermore, that although thus satisfied in their own minds they were 
anxious to treat her with all possible deference and consideration, and 
accordingly had desired me to say to her that if she thought another 
seance with her would or might modify or reverse their conclusion, 
they held themselves ready to meet her again this evening and renew 
the investigation of the manifestations; at the same time I felt it my 
duty to add that in that case the examination would necessarily be of 
the most searching description. 

Mrs. Kane replied that the manifestations at both seances had been 
of an unsatisfactory nature, so unsatisfactory that she really could not 
blame the Commission for arriving at their conclusion. In her present 
state of health she doubted whether a third meeting would prove any 
better than the two already held. It might be even more unsatisfactory, 



49 

and instead of removing the present belief of the Commission it might 
add confirmation of it. In view of these considerations, she decided 
not to hold another seance. 

Afterward, during the forenoon (you know she has been and still is 
my guest), she recurred to»the subject, and added that if hereafter her 
health improved it would give her pleasure to make a free-will offering 
to the Commission of a number of seances for further investigations. 

I forgot to tell you, when we last met, that yesterday morning, the 
6th of November, I brought away from Mrs. Patterson our sealed slate. 
It contains no writing, so Mrs. Patterson says. During the many 
months that it has been in this Medium's possession I have made to 
her the most urgent appeals, both in person and by letter, to fulfill her 
promise of causing the writing to appear in it. Her invariable excuse 
has been her lack of time. 

I Remain Yours, 

Horace Howard Furness, 

Acting Chairman. 
7th November, 1884. 

It will be seen from the last paragraph of tne preceding letter 
that the attempt to produce ' independent writing ' on the inside 
of the slate sealed by the Commission was without result. 

The slate was sealed on May 31st, 1884 (as described in the records 
of the meeting of that date), was placed in the hands of the Medium, 
Mrs. Patterson, the next day, where it remained until November 6th. 

Geo. S. Fullerton, 

Secretary. 



January 16th, 1885. 

The Commission met on Friday evening, January 16th, 1885, for the 
purpose of examining a second slate which had been sealed by Mr. 
Furness and left with Mrs. Patterson, and was now returned to the 
Commission. 

The slate was screwed and sealed by Mr. Furness, just before Christ- 
mas, and was in the hands of the Medium until January 12th. 

[So importunate was the Acting Chairman in his entreaties to Mrs. 
Patterson to bring to bear on these slates all her Spiritual power, that 
at last he induced her to name a certain afternoon that should be de- 
voted to the task. He went to her house on the day named, and sat 
4 



50 

with her while she held the slates in her lap. To increase to the utmost 
all available Spiritual force, Mrs. Patterson's two daughters and her 
brother-in-law, Mr. Winner, were called in and shared the session. 
After sitting for nearly two hours, the little pencil had not made its 
appearance on the outside, but could still be heard rattling inside, and 
the obdurate Spirits were abandoned for the day. — H. H. F.] 
The slate was secured as follows : 



r e 



(\7 




S 



a 



The two leaves of the slate were fastened by four screws at 1, 2, 3 and 
4 ; one side of the slate was already secured by the hinges 8, 8 ; the 
slate had then been wrapped by the tape 9, 9, as indicated, the knot 
being at 4 ; seals had then been set over the heads of the screws, upon 
the tape, at 1, 2, 3 and 4, and also over the ends of the screws, upon 
the tape, on the other side of the slate; a seal was also placed upon 
the ends of the tape at 5 ; and two seals at one corner, at the places 
indicated by 6 and 7. The corner marked by the arrow (-*— ) was 
protected only by the screws and seals at 3 and 4. 

When the slate was shaken no sound of the rattling of the pencil 
was heard — a pencil-scrap having been enclosed as usual in the slate 
when it was sealed. The Medium had declared that the pencil was 
gone, but said she did not know whether there was writing on the slate 
or not. 

The seals were first examined and declared intact. 

Then Dr. Leidy pushed a thin knife-blade between the slates at the 
unprotected corner, marked by the arrow oh the sketch. 

Then Mr. Sellers pushed in a thick knife-blade a little to one side of 



51 

Dr. Leidy's. (The exact place is marked on the rim of the slate itself.) 
Both the blades were thrust straight in — Dr. Leidy's exactly at the 
corner, and Mr. Sellers's at the point marked, and neither of them was 
worked about between the slates. 

The slates were thus separated by the thick knife-blade about one- 
tenth of an inch. 

The seals were not broken by this. 

While the slates were thus separated, it was noticed that the wood 
was discolored and rubbed glossy on the sides of the crack. 

Mr. Sellers then removed the tape, seals and screws. 

The slate being opened, no pencil was found and no pencil-marks 
appeared on the slate. 

The rims were worn smooth and blackened at the corner where the 
slates could be separated ; this was very distinct. 

Some soap-stone dust, which Dr. Koenig identified under a micro- 
scope as the same with a remaining fragment of the pencil inserted 
(which Mr. Furness had preserved), was found rubbed into the same 
corner, showing that the slates had been separated and the piece of 
pencil worked out. 

Mr. Furness then produced three slates of the same sort (with 
hinges, and about 8 in. by 6.) to be used in the presence of Dr. Slade. 
They were screwed up with a bit of pencil inside, in the presence of 
the Commission. Each was marked on the inside by Mr. Sellers, with 
a scratch from a diamond. To Mr. Furness was delegated the work 
of sealing them. [As Dr. Slade, however, refused to use any of our 
sealed slates, our labor was wasted.] 

Geo. S. Fullerton, 
Secretary. 



The following is a stenographic report of a meeting of the Com- 
mission, to consider the reports offered by several members of seances 
with Dr. Henry Slade, who came to Philadelphia to meet the Com- 
mission. As he refused to sit with more than three of the Commission 
at a time, it was necessary to visit him in sections. Arrangements 
had been made to have all the members sit with him in turn, but it 
was soon decided that continuity of observation was valuable, and 
certain members were appointed to do the whole work. 



52 

(A record from the notes of the Stenographer, Mr. J. I. Gilbert.) 

Philada., February 7th, 1885. 

A formal session of the Seybert Committee was held to-day at 8 
o'clock p.m., at the residence of Mr. Furness, No. 222 West Wash- 
ington Square. 

The session was devoted to consideration of the seances held with 
Dr. Henry Slade, from January 21st to January 28th inclusive. 

The following is a compilation of written notes and verbal comments 
upon the seances by members of the Committee : 

Mr. Coleman Sellers (referring to notes) : 

The Committee met on January 21st, 1885, at the Girard House, 
Philadelphia, in Room 24. 

There were present : Messrs. Thompson, Sellers and Furness, of the 
Committee, and the Medium, Dr. Henry Slade. 

The seance was conducted at a pine table prepared by the Medium, 
which was supplied with two falling leaves and stationed at a point 
remote from the centre of the room, and contiguous to a wall of the 
apartment. Upon the table were two ordinary writing slates and 
fragments of slate pencils. 

The relative positions of the Medium and the Committee were as 
follows: the Medium was seated in the space between the table 
and the wall. Professor Thompson occupied a chair at the side of the 
table to the right, and Mr. Furness one at the side to the left of the 
Medium. Mr. Sellers was seated at the side directly opposite to the 
Medium. 

After calling attention to the slates and the pencil pieces, the 
Medium remarked that, as his baggage had not come to hand, he was 
apprehensive that the sitting would not be a very good one. A brief, 
general conversation followed, and then, complying with a direction of 
the Medium, all present joined hands upon the table. Thereupon the 
Medium abruptly started back, and, remarking that he had received a 
very severe shock of some kind, inquired whether the gentlemen 
present had not experienced a like sensation. The responses were in 
the negative. 

The Medium next proposed to give an exhibition of "Spiritism"' 
through the agency of communications invisibly written upon the 
apparently blank surface of one of the slates. At this point Mr. 
Sellers asked that the table be examined, and, with the assent of the 
Medium, an examination was accordingly made by the Committee; 
the only noteworthy result of which was the discovery immediately 



53 

beneath the table-top of openings or slots into which the bars support- 
ing the table leaves entered when turned to permit the lowering of 
the leaves. 

(Mr. Sellers here continued, without reference to notes) : 

These slots and the use to which I ascertained they might be 
applied are worthy of special comment, as they played a very import- 
ant part in all the expositions that were made of the Medium Slade's 
manifestations. The slot under the table into which the vibrating bar 
passed when the leaf was lowered was an inch and a-quarter in depth. 
At a later period of the meeting, when the opportunity was afforded, 
I took the slate in my hand, and, from the table side at which I was 
seated (the one directly opposite the Medium's position) passed it into 
the slot, allowing it to rest there diagonally. Upon removing my hand 
the slate remained suspended in its place, and in a position in which 
it could conveniently be written upon. I may add that this arrange- 
ment of the slate is said to be an essential feature of Slade's favorite 
method of writing. The Medium did not fail to notice my experi- 
ment of passing the slate into the slot, and, upon the occasion of my 
second attendance at the "manifestations" (which was at the third 
meeting of the Committee), having dispensed with the table I have 
described and prepared another, he somewhat ostentatiously called 
attention to the fact that the table then produced contained no slots 
such as those of which I have spoken. I have a memorandum of the 
size of the slots. The dimensions of the table last referred to are 
given in Mr. Fullerton's report. 

(Mr. Sellers, referring again to his notes) : 

Taking a slate in his hand Slade held it beneath the table leaf to 
his right, when almost immediately there was a succession of faintly 
audible sounds such as would have been made by writing on the 
slate under the table. A knock indicated that the writing had ceased. 
The Medium then attempted to withdraw the slate, but in this 
encountered a seeming resistance, and only succeeded by a jerk, as if 
wrenching the slate from the grasp of a strong person who was below 
the table. Upon the slate, which was at once inspected, appeared in 
a fair, running handwriting, and as if written with a pencil held 
firmly in hand, the following: 

"My friends, 

Look well to the truth and learn wisdom, I am truly 

James Clark." 



54 



(Continuing, without reference to notes) : 

This writing differed entirely, in general appearance, from the sub- 
sequent writings upon the slate, having apparently been made with 
the rounded point of a pencil held in an easy and natural position for 
writing. In other instances the writings had a strained and artificial 
appearance, and had evidently been made with a pencil point which 
had been flattened before being used. 

Professor Thompson (to Mr. Sellers) : Do you remember that at 
the session of which you now speak the Medium denied having any 
knowledge of James Clark, and afterwards said that he did know of 
him? 

Mr. Sellers : I remember distinctly that he said he knew nothing of 
James Clark's affairs, and that, on another day, he presented a com- 
munication from a William Clark. 

(Mr. Sellers here resumed his reading from notes, as follows) : 

The writing was obliterated from it and the slate again held under 
the table, when the question was asked, " Will you do more." An 
interval of perhaps one or two minutes elapsed when the slate was 
exhibited, and upon it appeared the word " Yes." The word had been 
written with a broad-ended pencil, and neither in style nor character 
resembled the first writing. 

Mr. Sellers, complying with the Medium's request to write a ques- 
tion on the back of the slate, wrote " Do you know the persons 
present ?" The response which was made to this was " Yes, we do." 

No additional manifestations by writings were made at the first 
meeting. During the sitting many raps were produced on the table 
through some invisible agency, and as these sounds, in some instances, 
were such as could be made by simple means and at the command of a 
person sitting at the table, a member of the Committee reproduced the 
sounds. It was the conviction of the members of the Committee 
present that the sounds thus produced were similar to the sounds said 
to have been made by Spirits. The Medium, however, professed his 
ability to distinguish between the two classes of sounds, and remarked 
that some of the sounds heard by him were such as would be made by 
a person touching the table and causing it to make the raps ; that such 
sounds were not from the Spirits ; that when the raps were genuine 
they caused a peculiar sensation, a sort of tremor, in his breast, and, 
therefore, he could tell when the raps were spurious. 

(Mr. Sellers, aside) : In other words, thai, none were genuine 
but those made by himself. 

(Resuming, from notes) : The Medium, in answer to inquiries, gave 



55 

a detailed description of the remarkable phenomena said to have been 
produced in the presence of Professor Zoellner — which, he said, were as 
unexpected to himself (Slade) as they were to any one ; that they were 
beyond his control, and evidently the work of Spirits under very 
favorable conditions. x 

Mr. Sellers here read the minutes of the meeting of January 22d, 
1885, as prepared by Professor Fullerton. 

(The minutes are as follows) : 

The Committee met on Thursday, January 22d, 1885, at 12 m., in the 
Girard House, Philadelphia. 

Present: Messrs. Thompson, Furness, Fullerton and the Medium, 
Henry Slade. 

A table measuring five or four and a-half by three feet, was used 
by the Medium. It was an oval table with two leaves. The Medium 
sat at one side, with Mr. Furness at the end of the table to his left, 
Professor Thompson at the end to his right, and Mr. Fullerton opposite. 
A circle was first formed by joining hands upon the table. 

A slate was passed to Mr. Fullerton by the Medium, with the 
request that it be held by him under the table leaf to his (Mr. 
Fullerton's) left. The slate was held by Mr. Fullerton as requested, 
but at no time during the sitting was any writing produced on the 
slate. Toward the close of the seance the slate was held for some 
time under the opposite table leaf by Messrs. Furness and Fullerton. 

Dr. Slade, after cleaning a slate, held it under the table-leaf to his 
right, in the space between himself and Professor Thompson. The 
slate was not held close to the table, but in a slanting position, 
so that a space of perhaps four or five inches was left between 
the edge of the slate farthest removed from the table and the table 
itself. A piece of pencil, broken from a small pencil — about l-16th to 
l-12th in. cross section, was laid on the slate. 

A series of questions were here propounded, in each instance the 
inquiry being followed by a scratching sound, and the slate being then 
withdrawn from under the table and showing writing upon it. These 
writings were construed as responses. 

The questions and answers were as follows : — 

1. It was asked: Will the Spirits answer questions? 
Ans. (as above). 'We will try.' 

2. Is the gentleman opposite a Medium ? (Mr. Fullerton.) 
Ans. He has some power. 

3. Are there more Spirits than one present? 
Ans. Yes, there is. 



56 

4. Another communication which appeared on the slate was 'we will 
do more soon. ' 

5. Ques. Do you move this pencil? 
Ans. We do, of course. 

6. Tell us if you will play the accordion, or try to to-day? 
Ans. Yes. 

The accordion (a small one) was then held partly under the leaf of 
the table, where the slates had been. It played a little. The members 
of the Commission could not see it when in that position, or at least 
could not see the whole of it. Mr. Fullerton, by looking under Pro- 
fessor Thompson's arm, over the table, could occasionally catch a 
glimpse of it as Dr. Slade moved it to and fro, but saw only one corner. 

Dr. Slade then marked a slate with a line, and laid one of the bits 
of pencil upon the line. A large slate pencil was then laid along the 
edge of the slate. The slate was placed below the edge of the table 
beside Dr. Slade (to his right, as usual) when the large pencil was 
thrown up into the air two and a-half or three feet above the table. 

When the slate was brought up into view again the small bit of 
pencil was still in its place. This would, of course, be nothing remark- 
able if the Medium's finger were upon the small bit of pencil at the 
time of the jerk. 

Another slate was held by Dr. Slade on the same side of and below the 
table (as far as I could judge from his arm it was nearly as low as Dr. 
Slade's knee), and it was suddenly broken into many pieces, the frame 
being at once held up for inspection by Dr. Slade. It did not seem to 
have been broken against the table, as there was no shock felt in the 
table, nor did the sound indicate it. It might have been broken by a 
sudden blow upon the knee, as Dr. Slade's knees were in close proximity 
to the place where the slate was held. 

[The following are Notes of points which Mr. Sellers asked me par- 
ticularly to observe. — G. S. F.] 

Note 1. — The bits of pencil placed upon the slates seemed to be used 
in writing, for pieces with sharp edges were broken and put on the 
slates and afterwards were found somewhat worn. 

Note 2. — They were apparently the same pieces, as the size was the 
same. 

Note 3. — The writing did not seem to have been done by drawing 
the slate over a pencil at the time that the scratching was heard, for 
the slate was partly in view, and though it moved somewhat, it did not 
then move enough to make, for example, a line the whole length of 
the slate, as was done in one instance. 






57 

Note 4. — The pencil was found where the writing ended, and in the 
case of the line cited just above, the mark on the slate was just about 
as wide as the rubbed part of the pencil. The pencil was rubbed and 
the end had been flat. 

Note 5. — I did not^notice any difference in the fineness of the 
earlier and later writings. The first communication began and ended 
with a strong broad line. 

Note 6. — The accordion was a small one, and I cannot say whether 
it might not have been played upon with one hand if grasped in the 
right way. 

Note 7. — In every case, what was done was done out of our sight, 
Dr. Slade declaring that the object in concealing the slates, etc., was to 
prevent our wills from having a negative effect upon the phenomena. 
My own position opposite the Medium was a very bad one for observ- 
ing what was going on on his side of the table. 

(Mr. Sellers here read, from notes taken by himself, the minutes of 
the third of the series of Slade seances, as follows) : 

The Committee met on January 23d, 1885, at the Girard House, 
Philadelphia, in Koom 24. 

There were present: Messrs. Thompson, Sellers and Furness, of the 
Committee, and the Medium, Dr. Henry Slade. 

The Medium was seated in the space between the table and the wall. 
Professor Thompson occupied a chair at the side of the table to the 
right, and Mr. Furuess one at the side to the left of the Medium. Mr. 
Sellers was seated at the side directly opposite to the Medium. 

The table made use of on this occasion was much larger than the 
one used at the first meeting. Attention was called to the fact that 
there were no slots under the middle leaf of the table as there were in 
the other table. 

Between the leaf and the centre of the table paper had been intro- 
duced for the purpose of stuffing the crack, a rather large one, and the 
explanation of the Medium was, 'This is to stop a sort of draft that 
comes up through the crack and breaks the connection.' The mem- 
bers of the Committee were inclined to think that the purpose was 
to prevent them from observing through the crack any manipulations 
of the slate or motions by the Medium under the table. 

The first writing on the slate was, '"We will do all we can.' 

By request of the Medium, a slate with a bit of pencil was then held 
by Mr. Sellers under the table leaf next to him on his left, when the 
question was put, 'Will you try to write on the slate held by the 
gentleman opposite.' The response, 'We will try,' was written on 



58 

the Medium's slate. After taking the slate in his hand and cleanly- 
wiping it, the Medium passed it under the table leaf, when almost in- 
stantly sounds indicating writing, such as were audible at the first 
session, were repeated. Upon being exhibited the slate contained the 
following : 

My friends, — 
Paul's injunction was " add to your faith knowledge." this knowl- 
edge, has encouraged the desponding, and given comfort to the mourner, 

and gives hope to the Hopeless. I am truly 

William Clark. 

The appearance of this writing was much the same as that of the 
first day, when another long written communication was produced, 
but it bore no resemblance to the scrawls which were exhibited in 
answer to questions. 

A special minute is here made of observations by members of the 
Committee upon certain features of the Medium's operations, which 
tended to discredit the assumption of a supernatural agency in the 
production of the slate writings. In the above instance a slate which 
had been noted as standing against a leg of the table and behind the 
chair of the Medium, but conveniently within his reach, was dexter- 
ously substituted by the Medium for the slate taken from the table 
and the one upon which ostensibly writing was to appear. This was 
observed by one member. In another instance a member (Mr. Sellers) 
observed the same substitution, so far as the motion of the Medium's 
hand and arm was concerned. By certain private marks, adroitly ap- 
plied, the same member noted the fact that the slate on which the 
writing was exhibited was not, as the Medium represented it to be, the 
same slate which had been taken from the table. 

[The foregoing note by the Stenographer is somewhat incoherent, 
owing to his unfamiliarity with Slade's seances ; yet we prefer to let it 
remain as it is. — G. S. F.] 

(Mr. Sellers adds, parenthetically) : That is, I watched the Medium s 
operations specially with a view of informing myself whether the slate 
used in both instances was the same. 

(Resuming, from notes) : The Medium proposed that the Committee 
should retain the slate upon which the long message appeared. The 
slate was accordingly retained by the Committee. 

Professor Thompson (addressing Mr. Sellers) : Was hot that slate the 
one that I held at the time referred to ? 



59 

Mr. Sellers : It was. The slate was held by you at the same time 
that it was held by the Medium. 

Professor Thompson : Then there is an additional fact to be noted in 
regard to it. That fact is this. When the sounds indicating the 
writing process had ceased, I endeavored to pull the slate away from 
under the table, but the Medium resisted my effort, and by powerful 
exertion jerked the slate out toward himself. The substitution of one 
slate for the other was probably made at this time, and the slate so 
substituted was then placed on the table. 

Mr. Sellers : That is true, most assuredly. I saw the substitution, 
and Mr. Furness also saw it very plainly. From his position Mr. 
Furness saw the Medium take up the other slate. 

Note. — An explanation was here made by Mr. Furness to the effect 
that his knowledge of the substitution here spoken of was inferential, 
but that at another period of the seance he did distinctly see the 
Medium grasp an unused slate. 

Mr. Sellers here resumed, from his notes : 

The Medium then proposed to attempt the experiment of causing 
the chair upon which Professor Thompson sat, to rise from the floor, 
without external agency other than that of the hand of the Medium 
on the back of the chair. In answer to the question, 'Will you try to 
lift the chair?' the response was 'Yes.' Mr. Sellers, being requested to 
write a question on the back of the slate near him, wrote the following, 
'What is the time?' After some little time, during which the Medium 
furtively glanced at the slate, the answer was given, 'A little after 
twelve.' 

Upon being requested to open his left hand and hold it thus extended 
in a position beneath the top of the table to his left, Mr. Sellers com- 
plied with the request, when a slate, which had been held by the 
Medium under the opposite leaf, was passed across, and, after touching 
Mr. Sellers's hand, fell to the floor. After several repetitions, the slate 
was passed into Mr. Sellers's hand, but the experiment was accompanied 
by a motion of the Medium which was evidently such as would have 
been made if the Medium had passed the slate across by his foot. [At 
his seances Dr. Slade wears slippers, into and out of which he can 
readily slip his feet. — G. S. F.] 

In answer to the question, 'Are you ready to lift the gentleman?' 
the response, in writing, was given, 'Yes.' Clasping the back of the 
chair firmly with his right hand, and approaching it close enough to 
enable him to place his knee under the seat of the chair, the Medium, 
after very considerable effort, caused the chair to rise from the floor 



60 

an inch or two. The physical strain on the part of the Medium was 
evident. 

Professor Thompson, having obtained the permission of the Medium, 
wrote the following upon the slate, ' Can a Spirit, still in the body, 
write with a slate pencil without touching the pencil ? ' After some 
delay, and frequent surreptitious glances at the slate by the Medium, 
the answer was, 'Yes, we can tell.' This trial not being satisfactory, 
the same question was repeated. The answer, which was longer delayed 
than the one preceding it, was, ' We can do so, if the conditions are 
favorable.' 

Professor Thompson (interposing) : Do you remember the Medium's 
remarks about the resistance of the Spirits ? 

Mr. Sellers : I do. 

Professor Thompson : When he was pushing and pulling the slate, 
and meanwhile looking at it — while moving it backward and for- 
ward — the Medium remarked, ' There seems to be some kind of resist- 
ance ; they don't seem to know what to make of it ' — meaning that the 
Spirits were making some resistance to his moving the slate. 

Mr. Sellers here resumed and completed the reading of his minutes, 
as follows : 

The experiment attempted on the second day, of causing a slate 
pencil to jump from a slate without any disturbance of the slate, was 
here repeated. A line was drawn upon the slate, and upon this line 
a small bit of pencil was placed, the success of the experiment depend- 
ing upon this small piece remaining immovable upon the line. After 
several trials this was accomplished. The experiment of playing an 
accordion beneath the table was next made, and in one instance the 
top of the instrument was thrown upon the table. 

Mr. Sellers verbally made the following addition to his minutes : 

The response to the question propounded by Professor Thompson was 
attended with more than ordinary delay. Upon hearing the response, 
viz. : ' We can do so if the conditions are favorable,' Professor Thomp- 
son remarked that this did not answer the question at all. 

Professor Thompson : I made that statement in regard to both of the 
responses. 

Mr. Sellers: The statement, then, was, that neither of the responses 
answered the question. Whereupon the Medium at once obliterated 
the question from the slate, and remarked, ' Well, that is the best they 
can do,' or something of that kind, or, 'They cannot understand that.' 
The fact was that the Medium did not understand the question him- 
self, as it was purposely a somewhat involved question. 



61 

Professor Thompson : The fact appears to have been demonstrated 
that the Medium seemed to have no difficulty in catching the purport 
of questions of simple construction at a glance, and that a question of 
more than average length, which he could not perceive the sense of, or 
which was somewhat misleading in its terms, was not answered intelli- 
gently. 

Professor Thompson here further explained that, when writing the 
question spoken of, he concealed his hand from the observation of the 
Medium. Mr. Sellers here imitated the motions of the body of the Me- 
dium and the position of his hands at the time — the left resting on the 
table, and the right hand beneath the table, near the slate — after which 
the writing was displayed. 

Mr. Sellers next presented the minutes of the meeting of January 
24th, as follows : 

The Committee met on January 24th, 1885, At the Girard House, 
Philadelphia, in Room 24. 

There were present : Dr. Leidy, Mr. H. H. Furness and Mr. Cole- 
man Sellers, with the Medium, Dr. Henry Slade. Dr. Leidy occu- 
pied the position previously held by Professor Thompson, to the right 
of the Medium; Messrs. Sellers and Furness were seated as at the for- 
mer sittings. 

Slates were produced and held as at the previous seances. Upon one 
slate the following interrogatories and responses were recorded: 

'Spirits, are you ready to work?' Answer: 'Soon.' 

' Will you write for the gentlemen ?' Answer : ' We are trying to 
do so.' 

At this point the Medium substituted another slate for the one which 
he had held in his hand, and almost immediately thereafter, upon the 
new slate being placed under the table, the sound of writing began and 
was carried on with little interruption. The writing continued for a 
very long time, during which the Medium, removing his hand from 
the hands of the other gentlemen, said, 'You see that if I take my 
hand away from the circle and thus break the circle, the sound of 
the writing ceases ; if I place my hand back again, the writing is re- 
peated.' The sound of the writing, which had been temporarily sus- 
pended, recommenced when the hand of the Medium returned to its 
former position. The Medium further stated, by way of qualifying his 
statement on this point, ' If I do not jerk it away I can raise my hand a 
little.' He illustrated his meaning by slightly elevating his hand and 
withdrawing it from the other hands, at the same time calling attention 
to the fact that the sounds of the writing on the slate were continued. 



62 

This modification by the Medium of his original statement was re- 
garded as intended to cover instances in which the circle had been sur- 
reptitiously broken by members of the Committee without any of the 
results which had been predicted. Several such breaks had been made 
by the writer (Mr. Sellers) unknown to auy one but himself; and the 
Medium, finally becomiug aware of this fact, observed that the circle 
might frequently be broken a little without any effect being apparent. 

Professor Thompson : But did not the Medium make that statement 
at the very first stance? 

Mr. Sellers : He stated that at the first seance. 

(Resuming, from notes) : The communication inscribed upon the slate 
when beneath the table was in the same handwriting as the other long 
communications, and was evidently written with a sharpened pencil 
under favorable conditions. It was as follows : 

' My friends : 

I have been made happy by the advent of my dear wife into this 
land of souls. The name of my dear wife is Ann Louisa Tiers, of Ger- 
mantown. Now we shall part no more by death, as there is no death 
in this life. 

My friends, never grieve because your friends meet the change called 
death, as death is but the blooming of the soul. 

I am 

John Tiers.' 

Mr. Sellers, in reply to an inquiry by Dr. Leidy concerning the 
identity of the alleged author of the communication, here explained 
that a newspaper advertisement of even date set forth that Ann Louisa 
Tiers, widow of John Tiers, died on the day preceding the day of the 
meeting. The advertisement had been noticed by Mr. Furness, and it 
appeared to furnish the foundation for what had been imposed upon the 
Committee. 

The slate used at the meeting here referred to was one which Mr. 
Furness saw substituted, and which the writer (Mr. Sellers) is confident 
was substituted. 

Dr. Leidy here stated that the communication now referred to, un- 
like all the other communications of the Medium, which were miserable 
little scrawls of a few words, was a lengthy one, which covered the 
entire slate. He felt convinced that the slate upon which it was con- 
tained was substituted for the other one which the Medium ostensibly 
continued to use. 



63 

Mr. Sellers (resuming the reading of his minutes) : Dr. Leidy then 
wrote on the slate the following question, ' Dr. Le Conte — are you en- 
gaged now in the study of Coleoptera?' The slate was then placed 
below the table, and, after the Medium had been observed to glance at 
it repeatedly, as in the case of former exhibitions of this kind, the slate 
was finally reproduced with this answer written upon it, " Dr. L. C. is 
not present.' 

Then the experiment was repeated of drawing a line, laying a bit of 
pencil on the line and then a pencil on the edge of the slate. 

The pencil on the edge of the slate was tossed violently over the 
table, passed over and fell on the other side of the table, while the piece 
of pencil on the mark was not disturbed. 

Dr. Leidy : It should be borne in mind that that throw was not from 
under the table, because when the pencil went over, the slate appeared 
on the outside of the table. I sat near the Medium and saw that slate 
brought out as the pencil went up. 

Professor Thompson : The Medium claimed that sometimes the pencil 
appeared on the side of the table opposite to that at which he was sit- 
ting, but no such thing occurred in our presence. Would not it be 
advisable, when you say it was thrown up, to add that it was thrown 
from the side at which the Medium was sitting? 

Mr. Sellers: In each and every case. 

Dr. Leidy (to Mr. Sellers) : When the Medium gave you and me a 
slate to hold, he said the Spirits would make a communication. We 
held the slate away from him and there was not at any time a com- 
munication. 

(Mr. Sellers here resumed, from his notes) : The same experiment of 
jerking the pencil over the table was repeated with another pencil. 
Then, at the suggestion of one of the gentlemen present, the Medium 
repeated the experiment made at a former session, in which a long line 
was drawn on the slate while the slate was apparently held without 
any motion. The Medium then took one of the slates in his hand 
and placed it below the table, when it was suddenly broken. As 
he produced it, he called attention to the fact that the slate seemed 
as if broken from the top downwards. As he brought it out, the Me- 
dium turned the slate over and knocked it on his knee, and in that way 
crushed it to pieces. He then turned it over to show on which side 
the crushing took place. I saw that as plainly as I saw anything. He 
then used a pencil and drew a zig-zag line across the slate. The pencil 
was worn at one end. The same experiment, which was made when 
Professor Fullerton was present, was repeated, and it was noticed that 



64 

the pencil used in drawing the line was the identical one found on the 
slate. 

Dr. Leidy : In that part of the exhibition which purported to show 
how, through Spiritual influence, a slate pencil might remain in contact 
with a slate, the Medium took care not to elevate the slate to an angle 
of forty-five degrees. He merely raised it to the elevation which I 
now indicate. If he had elevated it a little more the pencil would 
have fallen off. 

Mr. Sellers (resuming) : An accordion was then played under the 
manipulations of the Medium, after which that gentleman told the 
writer that he might look under the table and witness the performance 
of the instrument. The writer availed himself of this permission, but, 
upon his looking below the table, the musical sound ceased, and no 
such sounds were heard during the period in which these observations 
were continued. The Medium remarked, "That is unaccountable; 
there is no reason why you should not see it." Nevertheless, the ac- 
cordion did not produce any sound while the writer was looking at it. 

Professor Thompson : There is one point which was suggested at an 
earlier stage of the minutes, and which is, perhaps, worthy of being 
recorded. It is this. At the time at which the slate was passed to the 
hand of Mr. Sellers, under the table, the Medium compelled me to sit 
around in a position different from that which I had occupied, in order 
that, in his operations, he could move his arms and Jower extremities 
as freely as he pleased. 

Dr. Leidy : My own supposition is that, when he played the accordion 
freely, the Medium made use of a little wire attached to a hook or 
something of that kind, which he could hold by fastening it to his 
clothing. 

Mr. Sellers : His method of manipulating the instrument was readily 
observable upon close attention. The accordion was a small one of the 
kind which is easily procurable in the market. 

(Resuming, from notes) : The next meeting of the Committee, which 
was held on January 26th, at the Girard House, was an exceedingly 
important one, because its result was absolutely negative. There were 
present, with the Medium, Professor Thompson, Mr. Furness and Mr. 
Sellers. Two slates were lying on the table behind him. The Medium 
brought forward one of these, wiped it, laid a pencil on it, and placed it 
under the table, but without any result. He said, " We must make a circle 
— that will have better effect." He laid the slate back upon the table. 
We then joined hands, and, after a time, thinking that there was mag- 
netic influence enough at work, the Medium reached back and took the 



65 

second slate — not the first one — brought that forward and put it under 
the table. Mr. Sellers asked the Medium, " Dr. Slade, will you allow 
me to see that slate?" The reply was, "No, not now; the conditions 
are not favorable." The Medium seemed rather embarrassed, and 
apparently regretted hi$ reply. He laid the second slate back upon 
the table, in its former position, but further back. We then again 
formed a circle, when he seemed to hesitate a moment as to the better 
course for him to pursue. He then reached back, grasped the first 
slate, and with a sponge washed off both of its sides, though there had 
been no writing upon either ; and then he brought forward the second 
slate, with the top side upward, and washed that side, though there was 
no occasion for the washing, as there was no writing upon that side. 
Turning the slate over, he began washing the back of it without show- 
ing the face of the slate, and finally laid it down. 

Mr. Furness here stated that he observed, at the time, that the face 
of the slate contained writing. 

Professor Thompson here remarked that the Medium had evidently 
appreciated the fact that he had been caught. 

Mr. Sellers : That fact was plainly apparent. 

Mr. Fullerton here remarked that at the seance reported by him, 
soon after the members were seated, the Medium reached behind his 
(the Medium's) position to get one of the slates placed near him, and 
accidentally turned up one, the back of which was covered with writing, 
whereupon he coolly remarked, ' That is the wrong slate.' Mr. Fuller- 
ton added that he did not at the time think of connecting this acci- 
dental exposure with what the Medium was then doing, and suggested 
that possibly this exposure prevented Dr. Slade's use of this method at 
the seance reported by him, as it would seem that none of the com- 
munications produced on that occasion were of the sort produced by 
substitution of slates. 

Mr. Sellers : The methods of this Medium's operations appear to me to 
be perfectly transparent, and I wish to say emphatically that I am aston- 
ished beyond expression at the confidence of this man in his ability to 
deceive, and at the recklessness of the risks which he assumes in his de- 
ceptions, which are practiced in the most barefaced manner. The only 
reason of our having any so-called 'manifestations' under the circum- 
stances was because of the fact that the Committee had agreed in ad- 
vance to be entirely passive, and to acquiesce in every condition im- 
posed. At the meeting here spoken of, I said to Dr. Slade, ' You see 
that we do not attempt to exercise any deleterious influence ; what we 
want is the truth, the simple truth, and we try to exert no influence 
5 



66 

which would tend to impair the success of your operations.' The reply 
of the Medium was, ' No, I know that you do not ; but sometimes the 
Spirits will work and sometimes they will not work.' We had no writ- 
ings in any part of that sitting — everything failed. 

Mr. Furness : We did not have even raps. 

Mr. Sellers: We did not have even raps. There was no sound of any 
character ; the day was absolutely fruitless of any result. Disgusted 
with this evident failure, the Medium decided to close the seance. He 
was asked, among other things, if he would write on double closed-up 
slates. He replied that he would not write upon them for the reason 
that the Spirits had forbidden him to do so ; that they had said they 
would not write on sealed slates, because many tricks had been played 
on them, one of which was the writing in advance of foolish and obscene 
matter, which, when the slates were opened, was attributed to the 
Spirits. I said to him, 'Would there be any objection by the Spirits 
to the use of the slates if these are brought here, opened and exhibited 
before you prior to their being used?' He replied, 'I have been for- 
bidden to write upon sealed slates ; the Spirits tell me that if I disobey 
them they will not write for me any more.' 

Professor Thompson : Yes, I heard that statement, that it was for- 
bidden to bring them or to offer the sealed slates to the Spirits. 

Mr. Sellers (resuming from notes) : As I have stated, the result of 
the meeting of the 26th inst. was entirely negative. That on the 27th 
was the last sitting. There were then present : Dr. Pepper, Mr. Fur- 
ness and Mr. Sellers — Dr. Pepper occupying the seat originally occu- 
pied by Professor Thompson, to the right of the Medium. All the 
manifestations that were made on that day were so similar, as far as 
writings and questions were concerned, to those that preceded them 
that it is scarcely necessary to make notes of them. Two or three 
rather remarkable things occurred. For instance, almost at the be- 
ginning of the sitting, Dr. Slade exhibited both sides of two slates to 
show that neither side contained any writing, and then placed a piece 
of pencil on one slate, and, covering it with the other one, held the 
two together between the thumb and finger of his right hand, and 
placed them upon Dr. Pepper's shoulder near the back of that gentle- 
man's head. The covering of slate answered the same purpose which 
a table would have answered, and prevented those present from 
observing the operation. He frequently repeated the words, 'The 
Spirits will write upon the slate.' He held the slate in this position 
for some time, but there was no writing upon it. He then placed both 
slates upon the table before him, side by side. Taking in his right 



67 

hand the slate which was towards his left hand, he placed a bit of pencil 
upon it, held it under the table, and said, ' Will the Spirits write upon 
this slate?' He then added, 'I feel a sort of drawing, a something 
which seems to pull the slate down underneath the table. That often 
occurs.' t 

I may here remark that, at the other sittings, the same expression 
was made use of at times, accompanied by the thrusting of the 
slate some distance under the table. The statement was that the slate 
seemed to be drawn some distance over to the person opposite the Me- 
dium. 

A sound was heard, and upon the Medium bringing the slate out 
from under the table, a zig-zag line appeared upon the slate with the 
pencil at the end of the line. The Medium remarked, ' That is some- 
thing.' Then laying the slate upon the slate to his right hand, with a 
sponge wiped off the top of it, but did not show what was on the under- 
side of it. He then placed his thumb beneath the slates, and turned 
them in such a way that the left hand, or top slate, came to be the one 
furthest from him as it was held behind Dr. Pepper's head. When 
holding it in that position for a moment, a scratching sound was heard 
in answer to the question, ' Will the Spirits endeavor to write on the 
slate thus held ?' A rap followed the sound of the writing. The slates 
were then taken down, and the top slate taken off. Upon what had 
previously been the top slate was written the words, ' Yes, we will try.' 

Mr. Furness (interposing) : That was one of the neatest things he 
did. 

Mr. Sellers : My habits of observation have been trained in this 
kind of work, and I watched the slates intently during the process. 

Subsequently certain raps were audible, when the Medium called 
the attention of Dr. Pepper to the fact that some of the raps were 
made upon the chair on which the Doctor was seated. It was very 
evident that the raps were, in fact, made on that chair ; there was no 
doubt about that at all. 

Throughout this entire sitting the Medium complained sadly of his 
physical disability. He said that he was afraid that he was going to 
lose the power of his right side, that he was becoming numb all 
over. The peculiar symptoms which he described will be reported 
upon in the observations of Dr. Pepper, by whom they were noted. 

(Mr. Furness here stated that the notes of Dr. Pepper would be 
read later in the evening.) 

Mr. Sellers (continuing) : The Medium did very little more in 
the way of writing. He repeated some few of the experiments previ- 



68 

ously made, such as the throwing off of the pencil. He declined to 
play upon the accordion, as the instrument had been broken. 

At this meeting two pocket compasses, one brought by Mr. Furness 
and the other by Mr. Sellers, were placed at a point near the circle of 
the hands in order to observe whether any deflection from the magnetic 
course occurred. No such result was noted. No change whatsoever 
in the needles was observed other than that which was caused by a 
vibration due to shakings of the table. From time to time the Medium 
would call attention to one of the needles with the remark, ' There, 
one of those needles is moving now.' In point of fact, the needle at 
the time would show no motion other than that caused by the jarring 
of the table. The Medium went on to say that frequently, under like 
circumstances, when placed close together, he had seen two needles 
point around in opposite directions. This might have been true, in 
the present instance, if the Medium had placed a magnet attached to 
his foot at a point at which it would have been between the two 
needles. Its effect would have been just the one which he has described. 
No such result was noticeable during our observations. 

A large part of the sitting was devoted to the discussion of the 
Zoellner experiments, the Medium narrating some of the phenomena 
that had been witnessed in the presence of Dr. Zoellner. He said, 
however, that Zoellner was a peculiarly impressible person, and one 
who had entire confidence in his (the Medium's) ability. 

Before the conclusion of the seance, the writer (Mr. Sellers) asked 
the Medium if he was acquainted with the methods of operation of any 
conjurors. The Medium replied that he did not know many of them, 
but he always liked to have conjurors at his sittings, as they produced 
a very good influence upon him At this point the following colloquy 
ensued : 

Mr. Sellers : Do you know a man named Kellar, who is exhibiting 
in this city? 

Dr. Slade : I do not. I never knew him. 

Mr. Sellers : You may, however, be able to explain to me a very 
remarkable slate- writing experiment which Kellar has performed. 
I will state the details of it. [Mr. Sellers here described at length Mr. 
Kellar's trick with the fastened slates, and in concluding, asked :] How 
did Mr. Kellar do that? 

Dr. Slade: He is a Medium. He does that work precisely as I do it. 

Mr. Sellers : But can he not do it by trickery ? 

Dr. Slade : No it is impossible. He is a Mediumj and a powerful 
Medium. 



69 

(Mr. Sellers continued the reading of his transcript, as follows) : 

Then I described to the Medium an experiment by Kellar in lifting 
a table ostensibly merely by laying his hands upon it, and I detailed his 
explanation of how deceptions might occur, his custom of pulling up 
his sleeves and exhibiting his hands to the audience. I added, that 
he had done the same thing with a chair. 

Dr. Slade : I do that thing, too. I will show you how I do it the 
next time. He does it as I do it. He is a Medium. 

(Mr. Sellers here paused to make the following verbal explanation) : 

I pause here for the express purpose of having the fact noted that, 
being thoroughly familiar with the details of the methods of these ex- 
periments, I can positively assure the Committee that there is no Me- 
diumistic power in Mr. Kellar, so far as his methods are concerned, 
that those methods are as easy of solution as are any other physical 
problems. 

(Resuming, from notes) : 

The inquiry was then addressed to Dr. Slade, ' Do you know a man 
named Guernella who, with his wife, gave seances ? ' ' Yes,' he replied, 
' I know him very well.' ' Well, how does he perform his wonderful 
exploits in rappings, etc. ? ' ' He is a Medium, a powerful Medium. 
I know him very well indeed. I can assure you that all that he does 
is done solely by means of his Mediumistic powers.' 

I now state to the Committee that the Guernellas exhibited in Phila- 
delphia some years ago as exposers of Spiritualism. They did not 
expose it, but they performed experiments which, prior to that time, 
were said to have been accomplished by the aid of Spirits. Guernella 
himself, at my house, in my presence, in broad daylight, performed all 
the feats and exhibited the phenomena that were produced at the dark 
and other seances, and he repeated them until I myself became as 
expert as he in performing them ; for which I paid him a considera- 
tion. So much for the Mediumistic power. 

(Resuming, from notes) : 

Before the close of this last seance, a letter was read to Dr. Slade 
by Mr. Furness, to which the Medium was requested to make reply at 
his convenience; the object was to preserve evidence of the fact that 
the Medium had stated that all the stances must be held under his 
conditions — that if the Commitee deviated in the slightest degree from 
the conditions imposed by him (Dr. Slade) he would 'pack up his traps 
and clear out.' [The letter and reply will be found annexed to this 
Record.] 

At the end of this seance, the sum agreed upon, three hundred dol- 



70 

lars, was paid to the Medium in three one-hundred-dollar bills. He was 
asked to sign a receipt for that amount, but his nervousness was such as 
to make this a task of some difficulty. He made many attempts to 
grasp the pen presented to him, but his hand shrank from it. At last, 
by a violent effort, and conquering the emotions that overcame him, 
the Medium grasped the pen and wrote the receipt. The extreme trepi- 
dation of Dr. Slade was possibly due to the unexpected displacement 
of two covered slates which he had left standing on the floor, resting 
against the leg of the small table at his back, and which Mr. Furness 
had overturned with his foot, the result being that at least two of the 
members of the Committee were apprised, by the quantity of writing on 
one of the slates, that it was ready for immediate use. 

Mr. Sellers (aside) : I saw the writing on the slates. It had manifestly 
been prepared for use by the Medium, and up to the moment of its 
discovery had been carefully kept completely covered. 

Mr. Furness here read to the Committee the following : 

Before Dr. Slade came to Philadelphia to meet this Commission, I 
was told by a valued Correspondent, an eminent Spiritualist, that much 
of Dr. Slade's success in Spiritual manifestations would depend on the 
way in which he was treated, and that he should be met in a cordial, 
friendly spirit. As this was but natural, aud as Dr. Slade's life has 
been passed among extraordinary scenes the world over, which 
makes him an entertaining companion, it gave- me pleasure to ex- 
tend to him what little courtesies lay in my power, asking him to 
dine with me during his visit, and to spend the evenings at my house, 
if the time hung heavy on his hands at his hotel. He dined with me 
several times, and I consequently saw more of him than did the other 
Commissioners. I told him more than once that, as a Commissioner, 
I should watch him with lynx eyes, and he always gave a laughing as- 
sent. I furthermore never concealed from him that he had, by no 
means, converted me to Spiritualism. [I last saw him in Boston, when, 
as I was passing along Shawmut Avenue, I caught sight of him at a win- 
dow; he eagerly beckoned me to come in, and, as I settled myself in a 
chair, I said to him, 'Well, and how are the old Spirits coming on?' 
Whereupon he laughed and replied, 'Oh, pshaw! you never believed 
in them, did you?'— April, 1887.] 

I had several seances with him in afternoons after the stances with 
the Commission, when I was accompanied by my mother, my sister, and 
by several friends; of course, only by one or two others at a time. 

It would be superfluous to rehearse here at length what Mr. Sellers 
has set before you much better than I can, the steps to the conclusion 



71 

to which we all arrived : that the long messages were written before- 
hand. The difference between thern and the short answers to questions 
asked at the seance, in the character of the handwriting, is too manifest 
and too obtrusively patent to be disregarded. In the long message 
from 'William Clark' on the slate which we have preserved and had 
photographed, ' Paul's injunction' is carefully included within quota- 
tion marks. The short answers to questions were scarcely legible, and 
at times could be deciphered only by help of the Medium himself. 
(This illegible handwriting is not without its use ; it engrosses the at- 
tention of the sitters.) 

It follows, therefore, that, if prepared slates are to be used, they must 
be adroitly substituted for others, which the sitters know to be clean. 
The question is thus narrowed to one of pure legerdemain, and the 
Medium must necessarily have several slates at hand. 

When two slates only are used, the prepared slate is usually lying 
on the table when the sitters take their seats. No attention is called 
to it, and some little time is taken in conversation, and in the spasmodic 
jerking caused by 'electric currents'; in a few minutes the slate pencil 
is placed on the slate ; no offer is made of showing both sides, which 
would be quite needless, since the side which is exposed is perfectly 
clean, and it is on that side which the Spirits are expected to write ; 
the slate is kept almost constantly and wholly in full view and but 
very slightly inserted beneath the table. After an interval of waiting, 
during which, by constantly looking at the slate as though impatient 
for the writing to begin, whereby his sitters become accustomed to the 
appearance and disappearance of the slate, the Medium reaches for a 
second slate, ostentatiously washes both sides, lays it on the table, re- 
moves the pencil from the first slate to the second, and places over it 
the first slate with its prepared message, face downward, and the trick 
is done. The two slates are held for a minute under the table, and are 
then held to the ear or on the shoulder of the sitter on the Medium's 
right hand — never to any other sitter, since to do so would reveal the 
scratching of the Medium's finger-nail on the rim of the slate, whereby 
the writing of the pencil within the slates is counterfeited. I have dis- 
tinctly, three or four times, watched the motion of the Medium's finger 
while thus scratching; as I sat facing the window the fingers which held 
the slate and made the fictitious writing were sharply outlined against 
the light. And here let me say that he who sits on the Medium's left 
hand, the side to which he turns almost his full back, has the best posi- 
tion for observation. He told me many times that he did not like to 
have three sitters, but much preferred only two ; at the third side, when 



72 

unoccupied, wonderful manifestations occur, such as a chair's ele- 
vation, or being thrown down, or the appearance of the unsup- 
ported slate, etc. These manifestations are executed by the Medium's 
foot, and lest its motions under the table should be detected, the longi- 
tudinal cracks where the two table-leaves join, were carefully stuffed 
with paper, although, to be sure, he once explained to me the presence 
of this paper as necessary to keep ' the electricity from flowing through.' 

Although Dr. Slade had agreed verbally in New York that the last 
seance of the series should be in the presence of all the Commission, he 
flatly refused, when in Philadelphia, to hold any in the presence of 
more than three at a time. 

On one occasion, when the Medium was very sure of his sitters, he 
placed the prepared slate, face downwards, on the table, with his fingers 
resting on the upper surface, then in a few minutes the slate was lifted 
up and the writing displayed, as though just made by Spiritual agency. 
Generally, however, when the writing is thus exhibited, it is in answer 
to a spoken question, and the reply is written by the Medium in his lap 
and the slate turned over before it is placed on the table. Manifestly 
it cannot occur as an answer to a written question, unless the written 
question is exposed on the upper side of the slate. 

How the scratching of the slate pencil is produced when the slate is 
lying on the table (I have been told that the sound is heard then) I 
cannot possibly explain, for the plain reason that I am too deaf to hear 
it, and I was, therefore, never on the watch for anything unusual. (Nor 
did I ever hear the sound of writing when the slate was held on the 
shoulder of my opposite neighbor, but I could see, and I knew what 
was going on, for the slate had once been placed on my own shoulder.) 

When three slates are used, the third, and prepared, slate, is either 
on the little table behind him or on the floor resting against the sup- 
ports of this little table. In either case he seizes the opportunity 
when his sitters are engrossed with an answer just given to a question, 
to substitute one of the slates which he has been using, and which he 
has just before ostentatiously washed on both sides, for the prepared 
slate. This I have distinctly seen him do twice, and once when I had 
arisen from my seat to read an answer on the slate, held by Mr. Sellers, 
I noticed when I resumed my seat that a certain slate which I had been 
watching was gone from where it had been resting against the leg of the 
little table, and we then immediately had the long message between 
closed slates. [This was the ' inferential ' substitution referred to on 
page 59 of this Appendix.] The slate which we have preserved and 
had photographed I saw him take from the table at his back. 



73 

Next, as to his answers to questions. I became so familiar with his 
methods in this department that I could have told at almost any 
instant what he was doing. 

After the question has been written the slate is handed to him face 
downward. A piece of pencil is then placed on the slate near the edge 
of the slate farthest from the Medium's hand as it holds the slate ; of 
course, as the writing is to be done under cover of the table, and as the 
Medium's hand or wrist is supposed to be always visible, the pencil must 
be far under the table. The awkwardness, therefore, must be overcome 
of having to reach or grope after it before the slate can be turned over, 
which it must be in order to enable the Medium to read the question on 
the under side. This difficulty is surmounted by constantly bringing out 
the slate and looking at it to see if any answer has appeared. By this 
manoeuvre a double end is attained ; first, it creates an atmosphere of 
expectation, and the sitters grow accustomed to a good deal of motion in 
the arm that holds the slate ; and secondly, by constantly moving the slate 
the fragment of pencil (which, be it noted, having been extracted from 
those slate pencils which are enclosed in wood, like lead pencils, is 
square in shape and remains stationary on the spot to which it is 
moved), this pencil, I repeat, is moved up to the side of the slate within 
reach of a thumb and finger ; when this is done, it is dexterously seized 
by the Medium, who is in turn at that instant seized by violent ' electric 
shocks/ under cover of which the slate is turned and generally placed 
between his knees, only once I think did he rest it on his knee, and 
once I think he pressed it against the table ; then he reads the question. 
And here he shows his nerve. It is the critical instant of the sitting, 
it is the only instant when his eyes are not fastened on his sitters, and 
I confess that his coolness won my admiration. On one occasion, when 
the question was written in a back-hand with a very light stroke and 
close to the upper edge of the slate, he looked at it three several times 
before he could read it. Moreover, it was a question out of the 
common, relating to the species of a hawk and not to a Spirit, and 
required an intelligent and definite answer. The hastiness of his 
reading may be inferred by the frequency with which merely the 
initials of the Spirit friend are given in the answer. After reading 
the question, I noticed that Dr. Slade winks rapidly three or four 
times in a sort of mental abstraction, I suppose, while thinking out an 
answer, but he always breathes freer when this crisis is passed, and 
the violent convulsions are over, which attend his hurried writing and 
the re-turning of the slate. His eyes can now be fixed in turn on each 
of his sitters, and he can rest a minute or two. (One one occasion I 



74 

saw the slate as he held it between his index and second finger, his 
index-finger and thumb held the slate pencil.) Presently, the slate is 
held near to the edge of the table, and a tremulous motion is given to it 
as though the writing were then going on. 

On one occasion, when I knew he was about to use the prepared 
slate (Professor Thompson will remember what I am about to relate), 
I suggested that we should use a perfectly fresh pencil, so that we 
could be sure that that very pencil had done the writing. I was 
very curious to know how he would evade the test. The slate was 
held close to the under side of the table (the new pencil debarred 
him from using the double slate) ; when the writing was finished the 
slate was slapped violently against the table, and was drawn from under- 
neath it — apparently with very great difficulty, and almost perpen- 
dicularly — and the little pencil, of course, slipped off, and in the 
excitement of reading the message from the 'Summer-land/ who would 
think of looking for the pencil ? It was so clever I wanted to applaud 
him on the spot. 

The other tricks, such as tossing the pencil from the slate and playing 
the accordion, can be perfectly explained and repeated by Mr. Sellers. 
Dr. Slade's fingers are unusually long and strong, and the accordion, 
which has but four bellows-folds, can be readily manipulated with one 
hand. 

At our last seance I noticed what were evidently two prepared slates 
resting against the support of the table behind him, where his prepared 
slates usually stood. I inferred that he would like to have some ex- 
traordinary slate writing on this occasion, and, therefore, kept a sharp 
watch on these slates. Unfortunately it was too sharp, for one second 
the Medium saw me looking at them. It was enough. That detected 
look prevented the revelation of those elaborate Spirit messages. But 
when the seance was over and he was signing the receipt for his money, 
I passed round behind his chair and pushed these slates with my foot 
so as to make them fall over, whereupon the writing on one of them 
was distinctly revealed. 

I think Dr. Pepper and Mr. Sellers will recall how the Medium 
instantly pushed his chair back until it was fairly over the slates and 
then snatched them up, and in the most hurried manner washed them 
both while turning his back to us. 

Two compasses, which we placed on the table during our seance, re- 
mained unaffected by the Medium's presence. 

During one sitting, when the Spirits conveyed the slates from the 
Medium's hand under the table to the hand of the opposite sitter, the 



75 

latter failed twice to grasp the slate in time, and it fell to the floor with 
a crash. Each time it behoved me to pick up the slate (both the other 
sitters were women), but the second time I stooped with the greatest 
alacrity and looked not at the slate but at the Medium's foot, which I 
saw just entering his slipper, into which it most hastily settled. 

I think Dr. Slade's personal appearance noteworthy, and shall en- 
deavor to obtain a photograph of him for preservation in our Records. 
He is probably six feet in height, with a figure of unusual symmetry, 
his hands are large but shapely, the nail of the second finger of his right 
hand is rather longer than the others, and appeared in the centre to be 
slightly split and worn. His face would, I think, attract notice any- 
where for its uncommon beauty. He has a small, curling, dark mous- 
tache, and short, crisp, iron-grey hair, of a texture exceeding in fine- 
ness any that I have ever seen on a man's head. His eyes are dark, 
and the circles around them very dark, but their expression is painful. 
I could not divest myself of the feeling that it was that of a hunted 
animal or of a haunted man. The color on his cheeks is very bright, but 
it is said to be artificial. He complained bitterly of ill-health and 
of water around his heart, which he said at times he could hear and 
feel "swashing about." 

A noteworthy man in every aspect. 

Mr. Furness then read to the Committee the following: 
Memorandum by Dr. Wm. Pepper of an interview with Dr. Slade 
on the morning of the 27th January, with Mr. Furness and Mr. Sellers. 

1811 Spruce Street, Philadelphia. 

He complained immediately and very frequently of his right side, 
saying it felt weak and numb, and he was sure he was going to be 
paralyzed. Careful observation showed that the right side was fully 
developed, the color of the right hand normal and the same as that of 
the left, and that the right arm, foot and leg were unusually supple 
and moveable. During the sitting I saw him deliberately kick my 
chair three (3) times with the side of his right foot, while attracting 
my attention to the scraping noises of the slate he was holding to my 
left ear; and again, when soft raps were heard and felt under the 
table, just beneath one of my hands, and at about the distance from 
him to which his leg would reach, I saw distinct movements of rota- 
tion of his thigh, as though he were producing these sounds by the ball 
of the toe striking under the table at that point. 

February 6th, 1885. 



76 

Mr. Sellers offered the following resolution, which was adopted 
unanimously : 

Resolved, That the reports of the Slade seances held in Philadelphia, 
as described by Messrs. Fullerton, Furness, Pepper and Sellers, are in 
accordance with the observations of each of the members of the Com- 
mission who were present. 
After a short Business Meeting the Commission adjourned. 

Geo. S. Fullerton, 

Secretary. 



The following corrrespondence explains itself: 

Philadelphia, January 26th, 1885. 

Dear Dr. Slade : — I think you need no assurance that the Sey- 
bert Investigating Committee have been anxious to deal with you in 
the fairest spirit of impartial, unbiased, scientific investigation, and I 
think you will bear witness to their uniformly considerate courtesy 
throughout our intercourse. 

You know how very deaf I am, and do not therefore need to be re- 
minded that one should trust scarcely more to what a deaf man hears 
than to what a blind man sees. 

Wherefore, I want you, for my sake, and that the Committee may 
feel sure of their ground, to confirm in writing what you have more 
than once said to me, namely, that the Committee must conform to the 
conditions which the Spirits impose ; that you cannot consent to sub- 
mit to any tests, and that rather than do so you will return at once to 
New York; that we must accept the manifestations as given by the 
Spirits ; and that, since these manifestations are the result of a gradual 
growth, it is impossible, in the space of six seances, to repeat or to verify 
Professor Zoellner's experiments ; and, lastly, that, if on your return to 
New York, the Spirits so authorize it, you will be willing, if desired, to 
make arrangements for another series of seances with us of a higher 
order of manifestations. 

I remain respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

Horace Howard Furness, 
Acting Chairman Seybert Commission. 



77 

No. 11 E. 13th Street, N. Y., February 4th, 1885. 

Dear Mr. Furness : — I take this opportunity to express to you, 
and through you to the other members of the Seybert Commission, my 
hearty approval of the course pursued by them in their investigation 
of phenomena occurring »in my presence. Fully realizing that I am 
only the instrument or channel through which these manifestations 
are produced, it would be presumption on my part to undertake to lay 
down a line to be followed by the unseen intelligences, whose servant 
I am. Hence, I did say their conditions must be acceded to or I 
would return to New York. That they did so, is evident to my mind 
from the results obtained, which I regard as a necessary preliminary 
to a continuation, when other experiments may be introduced with 
better prospects of success. It may be well not to insist on following 
the exact course pursued by Professor Zoellner, but leave it open to origi- 
nal or impromptu suggestions that may be adopted without previous 
consideration, which, if successful, would be of equal value as evidence 
of its genuineness, at the same time give greater breadth to the experi- 
ments. In conclusion, allow me to say that in the event of the Com- 
mittee desiring to continue these experiments through another series 
of sittings with me, it will give me pleasure to enter into arrangements 
for that purpose. 

Very truly yours, 

Henry Slade. 



Febuary 13th, 1885. 

On February 13th, 1885, Mr. Furness, Professor Thompson and 
Mr. Fullerton, on the part of the Commission, met Mr. Harry Kellar, 
a professional conjurer, at Egyptian Hall. 

The men seated themselves at a common pine table, 5 ft. x 3 ft., with 
leaves. 

Mr. Kellar sat at one side of the table, Mr. Furness at one end to 
his left, Professor Thompson at one corner to Mr. Furness's left, and 
Mr. Fullerton opposite Mr. Kellar. The end of the table to Mr. 
Kellar's right was unoccupied. 

Nine slates were found lying on a small stand about six feet from 
the table. 

These slates were washed one by one on the stand, and laid in a pile 
on the table at Mr. Kellar's right. 



78 

A slate was taken from the pile, both sides washed, another slate 
placed upon it, and both held together under the edge of the table. A 
long communication appeared upon one of them (or what seemed to be 
one of them), purporting to come from the Spirits. 

Two more slates were taken and apparently both sides washed. 
One was placed on the other and both laid upon the table in front 
of Professor Thompson, one end of the slates being held by him and 
the other by Mr. Kellar. When the upper slate was removed the 
under side of it was covered with writing. 

Professor Thompson then changed his position to that which he held 
when with Dr. Slade — to the end of the table opposite Mr. Furness, 
and to Mr. Kellar 's right. 

Writing was produced in similar manner on two other slates without 
the Committee detecting the manner in which it was produced. 

One of these slates was covered on both sides with the following mes- 
sages : On voyage tout eveille dans le royaume des reves et des illu- 
sions; l'esprit se refuse a admettre les merveilles executees dans une 
salle eclaire devant un public incredule qui cherche a s'expliquer les 
trues employes a deviner les — 

Kellar huye del espiritismo porque ya paso la epoca de ella, y solo 
da el ejercicio cardcter de prestidigitacion. 

Het blyflt onbegrypelyk hoe de heer Kellar die door twee personen 
uit het publiek stevigwordt vast gebonden, zich in een oogwenk wist 
los te maken 

[Here follow, in eight lines, sentences for which we have no types, 
in Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and Gujerati. This remarkable feat closes 
with the following in German script :] Ich bin ein Geist und ich Hebe 
mein Lagerbier — Hans Schneider. 
Von Moltke. 

One slate was broken in a similar way to that broken by Dr. Slade. 

Professor Thompson was asked to write a question, which he did 
while the side of the slate on which he wrote was turned away from Mr. 
Kellar. The slate was not turned over, the written question remain- 
ing on the under side, and it was held at the usual place under the 
table, Mr. Kellar's thumb remaining above the table in full view, 
while the fingers held the slate up under the table. 

A moment after the placing of the slate under the table, it was with- 
drawn to admit of a small pencil being placed upon it, Mr. Furness 
having remarked the absence of the pencil. 

The slate was not otherwise withdrawn from under the table above 



79 

two inches until its final withdrawal, and the question was always, 
seemingly, on the under side. 

When the slate was brought out a communication was found upon 
it in answer to Professor Thompson's question. 

The answer was on the upper side of the slate. [April, 1887 : Mr. 
Kellar afterwards revealed his methods to our colleague, Mr. Furness.] 

Geo. S. Fullerton, 

Secretary. 



February 19th, 1885. 

The Commission met on Thursday, February 19th, 1885, at 8 p.m., 
at the house of Mr. Furness, to attend a seance in the presence of 
Mrs. Maud E. Lord. 

All of the Commission were present, and there were present also, at 
the request of the Medium, several friends of members of the Com- 
mission, both men and women. 

There were in all eighteen persons present beside the Medium; 
these seated themselves, as directed by the Medium, in a circle, which 
was about six or seven feet in diameter; the Medium took her seat in 
the centre. 

The lights having been put out, the Medium drew her chair to one 
side of the circle, placing her feet in contact with those of one of the 
persons in the circle. Those composing the circle linked hands, while 
the Medium had her hands free. 

The Medium described a number of Spirit forms as coming to those 
present — to one a little child, to another an old man with white hair, 
etc. The descriptions were in general vague and indefinite, and might 
have applied to many persons. Nevertheless, they were in very many 
cases wide of the mark. Sometimes a father, a mother, or other rela- 
tion was described as present. In some cases the death of such rela- 
tions was acknowledged by the person to whom the Medium addressed 
herself, but in other cases the relation in question had not died, or, as 
in the case of a child or brother — had not existed. To give an in- 
stance of the Medium's inaccuracy : Mr. Fullerton's grandfather was 
described as coming to him, and the Medium, describing the form, 
added that Mr. Fullerton was not familiar with it, as his grandfather 
had died while he was a young man, and had had but little intercourse 
with him. Both Mr. Fullerton's grandfathers died some years before 
he was born. Many other descriptions were quite as erroneous. 



80 

Sometimes a form was described as coming to one person in the circle 
and not being recognized by that one, was referred to the next ; de- 
scribed as standing between them, etc. The number of successes, com- 
pared with the number of failures, was not striking. 

Whispers were heard — one at a time — always at a point in the circle 
at a distance from that at which the Medium was just after the whisper 
heard to speak to some one in her natural voice. The whispers were 
never simultaneous with the remark afterward made by the Medium. 

In the short interval between the whisper and the succeeding remark 
by the Medium, I distinctly heard, on many occasions, a rustle of 
clothing, and once or twice a slight creak of the chair, as though the 
Medium had moved her body from one side to the other, which she 
could easily have done without taking her feet away from those of the 
person she faced. 

Upon one of those present inquiring why the whisper always 
sounded as if made by the same voice, the Medium stated that the 
whisper did always sound the same, and that she was sorry to have to 
add, that it always sounded as if made by the voice of the Medium. 

Upon one occasion a light appeared and re-appeared two or three 
times in front of the Medium, passing from near her knee up for a foot 
or two. The light was indistinct, apparently phosphorescent, and 
passed so quickly that it could not be examined. It was described by 
the Medium, however, as a form of a child from the Spirit world. 

Those present changed their seats during the seance, as suggested, 
but without producing more satisfactory results. The seance lasted 
about two hours. 

At Mrs. Lord's own suggestion before the seance, two women present 
took the Medium into another room, and searched her clothes. 

Geo. S. Fullerton, 
Secretary. 



February 20th, 1885. 

The Commission met on Friday, February 20th, 1885, at 8 p.m., 
again at the house of Mr. Furness, to attend a second seance in the 
presence of Mrs. Lord. 

On the part of the Commission were present Mr. Furness, Mr. Sel- 
lers and Mr. Fullerton. There were also present several women and 
men, some of whom had been present at the previous sitting. The 
circle, when formed, was about six feet in diameter. 



81 

A ring was given by the Medium to Mr. Sellers and another to Miss 
Logan to wear during the evening, with the expectation that they 
might be taken by the Spirits and passed to another person in the 
circle, in accordance with the unexpressed wish of the one holding the 
ring. This was not done during the evening. 

A small musical-box was also given to one of the women to hold, 
and a zither placed upon the lap of a man. The former was, during 
the seance, taken from the woman holding it, and passed to another person 
in the circle. The Medium sat as before, with her hands free, while 
those in the circle clasped hands, as was done on the former evening, 
each one having his left wrist grasped by the right hand of his 
neighbor, or vice versa. 

The zither was undisturbed during the evening. 

Touches were felt here and there on the knees of those in the circle, 
and whispers were again heard from time to time. 

The whispers were, as before, never simultaneous with the speeches 
of the Medium, which were heard just after in another part of the 
circle. 

I distinctly noticed, on several occasions, the same rustle, as of a 
change of position on the part of the Medium, between the whisper and 
the remark by the Medium. 

Many Spirit forms were described by the Medium as coming to those 
present, with about the same proportion of success as on the former 
evening. 

At various times during the sitting, lights were seen, which appeared 
and disappeared rapidly. They were indistinct and phosphorescent — 
such as can be produced in a dark room by rubbing a match-head, 
or by exhibiting an object rubbed with a match. 

The lights — at least all that were clearly seen by several persons — 
were within the circle and about the Medium. 

Occasionally the Medium spoke of lights as without the circle, and 
one or two of those present (not members of the Commission) assented. 
But, as on two such occasions, when those opposite myself described 
the light as above and behind me, I saw it above and in front of me, 
or between me and the Medium; there is no reason to believe that they 
were not deceived by the difficulty of judging of the distance of an 
indistinct and evanescent appearance in a quite dark place. The 
direction, but not the distance, can in such a case be readily known. 

After a sitting of about two hours, the attempt to produce more 
striking phenomena was abandoned. 

During both seances Mrs. Lord kept up an almost continuous clap- 
6 



82 

ping of hands — the noise was not loud, but sufficient to aid in hiding 
any rustle of the Medium's dress, or creaking of a chair. The Medium 
also talked constantly. 

At the suggestion of the Medium those present joined in singing on 
two occasions. 

The whisper heard in the circle was uniformly hoarse. 

A list of those present at these stances and the names of the ladies 
who searched the Medium, are appended : 

Those present at Mrs. Lord's seance on Thursday were : Dr. and Mrs. 
Pepper, Professor and Mrs. Fullerton, Mr. and Mrs. Sellers, Professor 
and Mrs. Thompson, Geo. S. Pepper, Mr. Leonard, Miss M. M. Logan, 
Dr. Leidy, Mrs. A. L. Wister, Miss Agnes Irwin, Walter R. Furness, 
Dr. C. B. Knerr, Dr. Koenig, Dr. H. H. Furness. 

Those present at Friday's seance were: Professor Fullerton, Miss 
Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Sellers, Dr. Leidy, Mr. Leonard, Mr. and Mrs. F. 
Furness, Mrs. A. L. Wister, Miss Irwin and Miss Sophie Irwin, Miss 
Logan, Mr. and Mrs. F. M. Dick, Mrs. J. E. Carpenter, H. H. Furness. 
Mrs. A. L. Wister, Mrs. Dr. Pepper, Women Searchers. 

Geo. S. Fullerton, 

Secretary. 



May 27th, 1885. 

On May 27th, The Seybert Commission held a meeting at the house 
of Mr. Furness, at 8 p.m., to examine the phenomena occurring in the 
presence of Mr. Pierre L. O. A. Keeler, a professional Medium. 

There were present on the part of the Commission, Dr. Pepper, Mr. 
Furness, Dr. Koenig, Dr. White, Dr. Knerr, Mr. Sellers and Mr. Ful- 
lerton. The following friends of the Commission were also present : 

Mr. F. Furness, Mr. W. R. Furness, Mr. J. Foster Kirk, Mr. Yost, 
Mrs. E. D. Gillespie, Miss Gillespie, Mrs. Dr. Mitchell, Mrs. C. B. 
Rossell, Mrs. Dr. Pepper, Mrs. Sellers, Mrs. A. L. Wister, Mrs. Dr. 
Knerr, Miss Agnes Irwin, Miss M. M. Logan. 

There were also present, as introduced by the Medium, the Medium's 
wife, Mrs. Keeler ; Col. S. P. Kase and Mrs. Kase, and Dr. Annie D. 
Ramburger. 

The Medium, Mr. Keeler, is a young man, apparently about thirty 
years of age, with well cut features, curly, brown hair, a small, sandy 
moustache, and rather worn and anxious expression; he is strongly 



83 

built, about five feet eight inches high, and with rather short, quite 
broad, and very muscular hands and strong wrists. The hands were 
examined by Dr. Pepper and Mr. Fullerton after the seance. 

The seance was held in Mr. Furness's drawing-room, and a space was 
curtained off by the Medium in the north-east corner, thus : 



> * 


a 


"f- 


©\ 


V * 


©' 


x 


V 


% 


V 


> 






+ + 




** ++ 



The curtain is represented by a, b; c,d and e are three chairs placed 
in front of the curtain by the Medium, in one of which (e) he after- 
wards sat ; g denotes the position of Mrs. Keeler ; / is a small table, 
placed within the curtain, and upon which were a tambourine, a guitar, 
two bells, a hammer, a metallic ring; the asterisks show the positions 
of the spectators, who sat in a double row — the two marked (1) and 
(2) indicate the positions taken by Mrs. Kase and Col. Kase, according 
to the directions of the Medium. 

The curtain, or rather curtains, were of black muslin, and arranged 
as follows : There was a plain black curtain, which was stretched across 
the corner, falling to the floor. Its height, when in position, was 53 
inches ; it was made thus : 




84 

The cord which held the curtain was 1, 2, and the flaps which are 
represented as standing above it (a, b, c, etc.), fell down over a', b', d, 
etc., and could be made to cover the shoulders of one sitting with his 
back against the curtain. A black curtain was also pinned against the 
wall, in the space curtained off, partly covering it. Another curtain 
was added to the one pictured, as will be described later. 

The Medium then asked Col. Kase to say a few words as to the 
necessity of observing the conditions, need of harmony, etc. And then 
the Medium himself spoke a few words of similar import. He then drew 
the curtain (shown on the preceding page) along the cord (1, 2) and fast- 
ened it ; placed three wooden chairs in front of the curtain, as indicated 
in the cut, and saying he needed to form a battery, asked Miss Agnes 
Irwin to sit in chair (d), and Mr. Yost in chair (c), the Medium himself 
sitting in chair (e). A black curtain was then passed by Mrs. Keeler 
over Mr. Keeler, Miss Irwin and Mr. Yost, being fastened at g, between 
e and d, between d and e, and beyond a : thus entirely covering the 
three sitting in front of the stretched curtain up to their necks ; and 
when the flaps before mentioned were pulled down over their shoulders, 
nothing could be seen but the head of each. 

Before this last curtain was fastened over them, the Medium placed 
both his hands upon the forearm and wrist of Miss Irwin, the sleeve 
being pulled up for the purpose, and Miss Irwin grasped with her right 
hand the left wrist of Mr. Yost ; his right hand being in sight to the 
right of the curtain. 

After some piano-music, the Medium said he felt no power from this 
'battery,' and asked Mrs. E. D. Gillespie to take Miss Irwin's place. 
Hands and curtain were arranged as before. 

The lights were turned down until the room was quite dim. Those 
present sang. 

During the singing, the Medium turned to speak to Mr. Yost, and 
his body, which had before faced rather away from the two other per- 
sons of the 'battery' (which position would have brought his right 
arm out in front of the stretched curtain) — his body was now turned 
the other way, so that, had he released his grasp upon Mrs. Gillespie's 
arm, his own right arm could have had free play in the curtained space 
behind him. His left knee also no longer stood out under the curtain 
in front, but showed a change of position. 

At this time Mrs. Gillespie declared she felt a touch, and soon after 
so did Mr. Yost. The Medium's body was distinctly inclined toward 
Mr. Yost at the time. Mrs. Gillespie said she felt taps, but declared 



85 

that, to the best of her knowledge, she still felt the Medium's two hands 
upon her arm. 

Kaps indicated that the Spirit, George Christy, was present. As one 
of those present played on the piano, the tambourine was played in the 
curtained space and thrown over the curtain ; bells were rung ; the guitar 
was thrummed a little. *At this time the Medium's face was toward 
Mrs. Gillespie, and his right side toward the curtain. His body was 
further in against the curtain than either of the others. Upon being 
asked, Mrs. Gillespie again said she thought she still felt two hands 
upon her arm. 

The guitar was then thrust out, at least the end of it was, at the 
bottom of the curtain, between Mrs. Gillespie and the Medium. Mrs. 
Keeler drew away the curtain from over the toes of the Medium's 
boots, to show where his feet were ; the guitar was thrummed a little. 
Had the Medium's right arm been free, the thrumming could have 
been done quite easily with one hand. 

Afterwards the guitar was elevated above the curtain; the tam- 
bourine, which was by Mrs. Keeler placed upon a stick held up within 
the enclosure, was made to whirl by the motion of the stick. The 
phenomena occurred successively, not simultaneously. 

When the guitar was held up, and when the tambourine was made 
to whirl, both of these were to the right of the Medium, chiefly behind 
Mrs. Gillespie; they were just where they might have been produced 
by the right arm of the Medium, had it been free. 

Two clothes-pins were then passed over the curtain, and they were 
used in drumming to piano-music. They could easily be used in drum- 
ming by one hand alone, the fingers being thrust into them. 

The pins were afterwards thrown out over the curtain. Mr. Sellers 
picked one up as soon as it fell, and found it warm in the split, as 
though it had been worn. The drumming was probably upon the 
tambourine. 

A hand was seen moving rapidly with a trembling motion — which 
prevented it from being clearly observed — above the back curtain be- 
tween Mr. Yost and Mrs. Gillespie. Paper was passed over the curtain 
into the Cabinet and notes were soon thrown out. The notes could 
have been written upon the small table within the enclosure by the 
right hand of the Medium, had it been free. Mrs. Keeler then passed 
a coat over the curtain, and an arm was passed through the sleeve, 
fingers, with the cuff around them, being shown over the curtain. They 
were kept moving, and a close scrutiny was not possible. 

Mr. Furness was then invited to hold a writing-tablet in front of the 



86 

curtain, when the hand, almost concealed by the coat-sleeve and the 
flaps mentioned as attached to the curtain, wrote with a pencil on 
the tablet. The writing was rapid, and the hand, when not writing, 
was kept in constant tremulous motion. The hand was put forth in this 
case not over the top curtain, but came from under the flap, and could 
easily have been the Medium's right hand were it disengaged, for it was 
about on a level with his shoulder and to his right, between him and 
Mrs. Gillespie. Mr. Furness was allowed to pass his hand close to the 
curtain and grasp the hand for a moment. It was a right hand. 

Soon after the Medium complained of fatigue, and the sitting was dis- 
continued. It was declared by the Spiritualists present to be a fairly 
successful seance. When the curtains were removed, the small table in 
the enclosure was found to be overturned, and the bells, hammer, etc., 
on the floor. 

It is interesting to note the space within which all the manifestations 
occurred. They were, without exception, where they would have been 
had they been produced by the Medium's right arm. Nothing hap- 
pened to the left of the Medium, nor very far over to the right. The 
sphere of activity was between the Medium and Mr. Yost, and most of 
the phenomena occurred, as, for example, the whirling of the tambourine, 
behind Mrs. Gillespie. 

The front curtain — i. e., the main curtain which hung across the 
corner — was 85 inches in length, and the cord which supported it, 53 
inches from the floor. The three chairs which were placed in front of it 
were side by side, and it would not have been difficult for the Medium 
to reach across and touch Mr. Yost. When Mrs. Keeler passed objects 
over the curtain, she invariably passed them to the right of the Medium, 
although her position was on his left ; and the clothes-pins, paper, pen- 
cil, etc., were all passed over at a point where the Medium's right hand 
could easily have reached them. 

To have produced the phenomena by using his right hana, the 
Medium would have to have passed it under the curtain at his back. 
This curtain was not quite hidden by the front one at the end near the 
Medium, and this end both Mr. Sellers and Dr. Pepper saw rise at the 
beginning of the seance. 

The only thing worthy of consideration, as opposed to a natural 
explanation of the phenomena, was the grasp of the Medium's hands 
on Mrs. Gillespie's arm. 

The grasp was evidently a tight one above the wrist, for the arm was 
bruised for about four inches. There was no evidence of a similar press- 
ure above that, as the marks on the arm extended in all about five or 



87 

six inches only. The pressure was sufficient to destroy the sensibility 
of the fore-arm, and it is doubtful whether Mrs. Gillespie with her arm 
in such a condition could distinguish between the grasp of one hand, 
with a divided pressure (applied by the two last fingers and the thumb 
and index) and a double grip by two hands. Three of our number, Mr. 
Sellers, Mr. Furness and Dr. White, can, with one hand, perfectly 
simulate the double grip. 

It is specially worthy of note that Mrs. Gillespie declared that, when 
the Medium first laid hold of her arm with his right hand before the 
curtain was put over them, it was with an under grip, and she felt his 
right arm under her left. But when the Medium asked her if she felt 
both his hands upon her arm, and she said yes, she could feel the grasp, 
but no arm under hers, though she moved her elbow around to find it 
— she felt a hand, but not an arm, and at no time during the seance 
did she find that arm. 

(Taken from notes made during the seance and immediately after it.) 

Geo. S. Fullerton, 
Secretary. 

N. B. — It should be noted that both the Medium and Mr. Yost took 
off their coats before being covered with the curtain. It was suggested 
by Dr. Pepper that this might have been required by the Medium as a 
precaution against movements on the part of Mr. Yost. The white 
shirt-sleeves would have shown against the black background. 

G. s. f. 



December 29th, 1885. 

There was a meeting of The Seybert Commission this evening, at the 
house of Mr. Furness, on Washington Square, to investigate some 
Materializations promised by the Mediums, Dr. Rothermel and Mr. 
Powell. 

There were present Mr. Furness, Dr. Leidy, Professor Thompson, Dr. 
S. Weir Mitchell, Dr. White, Dr. Knerr, Mr. Fullerton, Colonel Kase, 
Mr. Frank Furness, Mrs. J. Dundas Lippincott, Mrs. Dr. Pepper, Mrs. 
A. L. Wister, and a number of others. 

The Mediums arrived with quite a bundle of apparatus, and stretched 
their curtain where Mr. Keeler had his, across the corner of the parlor, 
from the door leading into the hall to the edge of the window. The 
curtain was similar to that of Mr. Keeler in its general character, and, 



as in that case, the whole corner was draped in black. The shape of 
the Cabinet was triangular. 

The Mediums said it was impossible to produce materialized forms 
as they had expected, and proceeded to give much the same sort of a 
seance as Mr. Keeler's — in this case, however, the hands of the Medium 
covered by the curtain being fastened with tape, instead of being held. 

The arrangement of the curtain, positions of the Mediums, and the 
positions of the spectators were as indicated. 




X Dr. Rothermel — a curtain at his back and one in front of him, his head 
through a hole in the upper part of the outer flap of the double curtain. 

Y Mr. Powell. 

* * * Spectators. 

On table (2) was a music-box, and on table (1), within the Cabinet, bells, a 
zither, etc. 



The lights were all extinguished but one, and that one was prevented 
from throwing light on the Medium by a shade placed upon one side 
of it — it was turned low. The light was not so good as during Mr. 
Keeler's seance. 

Before the lights were put out, Dr. White was asked to tie the Me- 
dium, and Mrs. Lippincott to sew the ends of the ribbon and tape with 
which he was tied. 

A ribbon was tied around each leg above the knee, and the ends 
sewed to his trowsers. A bit of black tape was then passed under the 
ribbon and tied around the wrist, the ends being knotted and sewed 
together by Mrs. Lippincott. His right hand was thus fastened 



89 

to his right leg, and his left hand to his left leg ; though he still had 
some freedom of motion, and could easily reach one hand with the other. 

Dr. Rothermel was then placed as indicated, behind the outer curtain, 
and the lights extinguished as described. 

He asked for a drink of water, which was given him by Mr. Powell, 
who stood directly in front of him while he drank it, and hid him from 
the audience. 

Then the zither played, a cap was thrown out over the curtain, a 
hand (to the right of the Medium) was shown over the curtain. 

Bells were rung, papers thrown out, a drum accompaniment to the 
piano played, as by Mr. Keeler, and the drum-sticks thrown out. 

Mr. Powell wet in a glass some handkerchiefs with water, and passed 
them over the curtain, they were passed out with a message written on 
them in indelible ink. This could easily have been done with an in- 
delible pencil. (The small table within the curtain was within easy 
reach of the right hand of the Medium, had it been free, and could 
have been used for such work.) 

The music-box on table (2) was set off — was rattled several times. 
(It could have been done by the Medium's left hand if it were free.) 

The person, to whom each of the above-mentioned handkerchiefs 
was to be returned, was indicated by raps from the Spirit. (The Spirit 
was in error in returning handkerchiefs to Dr. Mitchell and Mr. Fuller- 
ton.) 

The zither was put out at the right and left hand lower corners of 
the curtain. (It could have been done by the Medium, were his hands 
free.) 

The Medium professed to be then controlled by the Spirit of a young 
girl — Emma Hirsch. He spoke in an unnatural and squeaky voice, 
but occasionally lapsed into his natural voice. The Spirit declared the 
Medium unconscious, but refused to allow any medical examination of 
his condition. 

The Mediums were then asked to allow Dr. Rothermel's hands to be 
examined. After a little delay, the curtain was folded back and the 
hands exposed. 

Mr. Fullerton was permitted to examine them by the light of a match 
only, and very hastily. They did not allow a candle, which had been 
lighted, to be brought near. As Mr. Fullerton approached to examine 
the knots, Mr. Powell came close and seemed very much afraid they 
would be touched. He kept reiterating, " Don't touch them !" " Don't 
touch them!" "It would be very dangerous! " The examination was 
hasty and unsatisfactory, as Mr. Powell and Dr. Rothermel both said 



90 

that he (the latter) could endure it only a moment. Hasty as it was, 
it showed that the knots, which had been on top of the wrists, were 
now underneath ; the tapes, as is mentioned later, were, at the end 
of the seance, found cut close to the knots. 

Whether the tapes were really in their former state, and not already 
cut, could only be known by examining them all around, and such 
an examination was not allowed. 

It should be stated that before this, and after some of the manifesta- 
tions, the Medium, with some convulsive movement, as if pulled and 
pushed by Spirits, came out from under the curtain, and stood with his 
hands on his legs, as if tied there, but it was too dark to see whether he 
was really tied, or merely held his hands there, and no examination 
was made. 

Soon after, the Medium declared that the Spirits were cutting him 
loose, and when the curtain was removed and lights brought, the tapes 
which had bound his wrists were found to be cut through close to the 
knots. "Whether this was done at the beginning of the seance, leaving 
the Medium's hands free from the beginning, or at the time indicated 
by the Medium, there was no means of proving. The cutting of the 
tapes made the tying and sewing tests quite valueless. 

(Taken from notes made during the seance and immediately after.) 

Geo. S. Fullerton, 
Secretary. 



The following advertisement was, in March, 1885, inserted in The 
Religio- Philosophical Journal, of Chicago, The Banner of Light, in 
Boston, and The Public Ledger, in Philadelphia: 

" The Seybebt Commission foe Investigating Modern 
Spiritualism," of the University of Pennsylvania, hereby requests 
all Mediums for Independent Slate Writing, and no other at present, 
who are willing to submit their manifestations to the examination 
of this Commission, to communicate with the undersigned, stating 
terms, etc. 

Horace Howard Furness, 

Acting Chairman, 

Philadelphia, Pa. 



91 



SPIRITUAL PHOTOGRAPHY. 

When Mr. Keeler, a well-known " Spiritual Photographer," was in 
the city, the Acting Chairman called on him, and requested from him 
in writing a statement of his terms and the conditions under which an 
investigation by this Commission could be held. The following reply was 
received from him : 

1614 Green Street, 
Philadelphia, November 6th, 1885. 
Mr. Furness. 

Dear Sir: — In regard to giving the Photographic Seances I feel 
that I am obliged to ask an observance of the following conditions : 
That there be three Seances, for which I shall expect the sum of $300. 
I desire only the regularly appointed members of the Commission on 
your side to be present, I to have the privilege to invite an equal num- 
ber of persons, if necessary, to harmonize the antagonistic element which 
might be produced by those persons not in perfect sympathy with the 
cause. 

I must have the right to demand, if conditions make it necessary, the 
exclusive use of the dark room and my own instrument. 

The Seances to be given at your own residence. 

As I cannot guard against the influences which others may bring, I 
shall expect to be paid the afore-named sum whether my efforts prove 
satisfactory or not, although I hope for the most favorable results, and 
to this end I would urge the members of the Commission to surround 
me with the most congenial and harmonious conditions possible. 

These Seances to begin on the 12th inst. 

If this meets with your approval an early answer is solicited. 
Very respectfully, 

W. M. Keeler. 

Memorandum for the Seybert Commission. 

I called this morning (Saturday, 14th November, 1885), on Mr. W. 
M. Keeler, and told him, in effect, in the very words as well as I can 
remember, as follows : that I had received his letter of the 6th inst., 
containing his terms, and had consulted the Commission in regard to 
them ; and that our conclusion had been quickly reached. He must know 
how very simple a process this 'composite photography' is, and that 
among photographers there is no mystery whatever in it. For his own 
process he claimed a Spiritual Agency — this agency we were willing 



92 

to accept (in my own case I was anxious to accept it) if, after a thor- 
ough investigation, his process could not be explained by well-known 
physical laws. The conditions he demanded were such as to render 
any investigation simply silly. His exclusive use of the dark room, 
which could have nothing to do with Spiritual forces, for the Spirits 
had already done their work in the Camera, utterly precluded us from 
discovering whether his processes were in anywise different from ordi- 
nary photography. He wished to know in what way this prevented us 
from detecting fraud if the operations took place in a private house 
where he was a stranger. I replied that without for a moment impugn- 
ing his honesty, he must know that unless we were present with him in 
the dark room, we could not affirm that our marks had not been dupli- 
cated on substituted plates. 

Furthermore, that we had regarded his terms as intentionally pro- 
hibitory. The demand for three hundred dollars was so extraordinary 
that we could regard it in no other light than as a desire to avoid an 
investigation altogether. I asked him what his ordinary charge was, 
and he replied two dollars for each sitting, and that he made from 
twenty to forty dollars a day, when he settled down to work. 

That there might be no misunderstanding, I repeated my reply to 
his wife: that we were ready to investigate, if we could be allowed to 
watch the very points where material agency ceases and spiritual begins, 
but these very points Mr. Keeler forbade us to examine, and that the 
failure rested with him. 

At one time his vexation (which was manifest) a little ran away with 
his discretion. He asked, with somewhat of a sneer, ' How did you ex- 
pect to investigate it?' I replied that 'I could not answer for others, 
but for myself I should have liked to have him say, when we of the 
Commission met him, "The Spirits are present, through my Mediumship, 
here is my Camera in which the Spirits will manifest themselves on the 
sensitized plates, take it, and so long as I am present with my influence, 
do what you please.' He laughed outright and said ' That would be a 
good thing.' 

I endeavored throughout the interview to impress him with our utter 
incredulity in the spiritual nature of his photographs, and yet to give 
him no loop to hang a charge of discourteous or illiberal treatment on. 
I asked him to give me, in my private capacity, a sitting at his ear- 
liest convenience, and that I should not be satisfied with less than a 
cherub on my head, one on each shoulder, and a full-blown angel 
on my breast. He laughingly assented. 

Horace Howard Furness, 
Acting Chairman Seybert Commission. 



93 

I ought, perhaps, to add that I showed to Mr. Keeler a composite 
photograph taken by one of my sons, wherein a Spirit quite as ethereal 
as any of Mr. Keeler's, appears in the background. He looked at it, 
and returned it to me without remark. 

H. H. F. 



March 30th, 1886. 

The Seybert Commission met this evening at the house of Dr. Pep- 
per, to investigate Spiritistic phenomena produced through the Medi- 
umship of Mr. Briggs (for an account of Mr. Briggs see a previous 
report). 

There were present, Dr. Pepper, Dr. Leidy, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, 
Professor Koenig, Dr. White, Dr. Knerr, Mr. Fullerton and two friends 
of Dr. Pepper, Mr. Charles G. Smith and Mr. Robert S. Davis; also 
the Medium, Mr. Fred. Briggs. 

The seance was in Dr. Pepper's office; a square table (about Bi feet 
square) was placed in the room near the centre, and was supplemented 
by an oblong table (about 4 feet by 3) placed with one end touch- 
ing the side of the former, upon the Medium's declaring the former 
too small. Seats were taken around the tables. 

A banjo, a musical box, a zither, a couple of slates and a fan were 
on the tables. 

The Medium insisted that there should be total darkness, and a shawl 
was hung over the window to exclude all light. 

At first hands were joined around the table. Then the Medium 
suggested breaking the circle. His hands were then quite free. 
Draughts of air were felt (possibly the fan) ; the Medium kept making 
noises, blowing and breathing hard, talking, etc. ; the slates on the 
table were moved, the guitar was twanged, the music-box played. 
During all this the Medium asked that the hands of all present be 
kept on the table. 

The Medium stated that Mr. Seybert was present. He declared 
that Mr. Seybert expressed himself as satisfied with the efforts of the 
Commission to make a fair investigation. 

When the Medium stated that some message had been written on 
one of the slates by Mr. Seybert, the gas was lit, and we found on one 
slate " I am here." No one present was able to declare it Mr. Sey- 
bert's handwriting, as none were familiar with his writing. 

The light was then turned low. Mr. Smith was asked to sit in the 
place of Dr. Mitchell. He held, as directed, one slate up under the 



94 

table, and the Medium held the other under the table over his own 

knee. After some conversation the Medium drew out his slate, and 

the light being turned up we found on it : 

" I am with you. 

John Pepper." 

It was too dark to watch the Medium during this last occurrence. 
The conversation, which was general, would have prevented writing 
from being heard. 

Light turned up — both slates held by the Medium under the table 
— no result. 

The light was then turned low. Dr. Leidy was asked to sit next 
the Medium. Some noise and confusion resulted from making the 
change. Then the Medium asked Dr. Leidy to put his hand also upon 
a slate which the Medium was holding up under the table. Attention 
was then called to a scratching sound, which might have been writing. 
The slate was taken out by Dr. Leidy, and the light turned up. The 
following was written on it : 

" John Smith is with you like a young son. 

John Lydy." 

It was, of course, possible that the writing was done before Dr. 
Leidy put his hand on it, as the slate was not then examined. 

The Medium suggested that we ask mental questions ; several did so, 
without result. 

The light was then turned up. Hands were joined. Some feeble 
raps were heard ; they apparently issued from under the table. 

Slates were held under the table, but without result. 

The light was then turned low. A slate was held under the table 
by the Medium. He breathed hard, and made no little noise for 
some time. Then Dr. Koenig was asked to put his hand on the slate. 
A scratching was heard. When the light was turned up the slate 
contained the message : 
" I will help you all. 

Dr. Benj. Rush." 

With this the seance ended. 

(Copied from notes taken during the seance. Written out the day 
after.) 

Geo. S. Fullerton, 

Secretary. 



95 

April 11th, 1886. 

I attended a seance at the house of Colonel Kase, 1601 North 15th 
Street, Philadelphia, on April 11th, at 8.10 p.m. The Medium was 
Mrs. Best. 

There were about a dozen persons present; at least two of them, 
besides Mrs. Best, claimed to be Mediums. 

The seance was in Colonel Kase's sitting-room. The "Cabinet" was 
made by stretching a curtain, suspended to a curved rod, across one 
corner. It could hold a chair, and was perhaps four feet across, or 
more. The Medium, Mrs Best, took her seat in the chair and drew 
the curtain. The room was made totally dark — a cloth being used to 
cover the crack of the door. The spectators, who were arranged in a 
deep curve facing the cabinet, were asked to sing a hymn. 

As we sang, a voice from the Cabinet, a deep contralto, joined in, 
loudly. Soon something resembling in outline a human form covered 
with drapery appeared at the Cabinet. It was indistinctly luminous. 
No face was visible; nor could the face of any other Spirit, which 
appeared during the evening, be discerned even in faintest outline. 
The light seemed to belong entirely to the drapery. The Spirit was 
declared to be Apollonius, and made a speech in a loud, harsh voice. 
Other similar forms appeared one after the other, and spoke in different 
tones — all the voices, however, with the exception of Apollonius's and 
that of another speaker, were more or less like hoarse whispers. When 
the Spirit of Mr. T. R. Hazard appeared, his voice was by no means 
natural, and sounded like a bad imitation. 

A form calling itself "Lottie" appeared, kissed a Medium present, 
and at my request passed its hands over my head and face. Its hands 
were covered with luminous drapery which hung down perhaps a foot. 
I was allowed to touch it. It felt like soft tulle. A very strong odor 
of sandal-wood prevailed, and the smell of phosphorus, even if it had 
been used, could not easily, at a little distance, have been discerned. 
The luminous appearance of the drapery did not seem to be due to 
phosphorus — it did not fume. It seemed rather such as might have 
been produced by luminous paint — a mixture luminous in the dark 
after exposure to the light. I noticed on the hand, or what, from posi- 
tion, I inferred to be the hand, of the form, a distinctly phosphorescent 
appearance; it was on this account I asked it to touch me. As it 
passed its hand over my face I distinctly smelt phosphorus. 

At one time two forms appeared near each other and near the 
Cabinet. They might easily have been produced by holding up 
luminous drapery. Tall and then short forms then appeared one 



96 

at a time. If the drapery were raised or lowered the appearance 
could readily have been produced, and the person holding it would 
have been quite invisible. 

The different voices that spoke never spoke simultaneously. A large 
rug on the floor in front of the Cabinet would have prevented steps 
from being heard, had the form been the Medium. On two occasions, 

when I suggested that I recognized the form by asking, " Is it ?" 

the Spirit assented, and assumed the character. Both the persons I 
mentioned are still alive. 

The seance began at 8.10 p.m., and lasted two hours and a-half. 
There was much singing. 

The seance was regarded by several Spiritualists who were present as 
a very satisfactory one. I expressly asked for their opinion. 

(Written out on April 13th, from notes made in the car, on my way 
home from the seance.) 

Geo. S. Fullerton, 

Secretary. 



January 30th, 1887. 

Yesterday I visited Mrs. M. B. Thayer, an Independent Slate Writing 
Medium, at 1601 North 15th Street, Philadelphia, in hopes of arrang- 
ing for a seance at that time. I had a conversation of about half an 
hour with Mrs. Thayer, who asked what I had seen before, and with 
what Mediums I had sat ; but I was not able to get a sitting at once, 
Mrs. Thayer declaring "the conditions" unsatisfactory. She made an 
appointment, however, for to-day at 4 p.m. In the hall I met, on my 
departure, Mrs. Kase, the hostess of the Medium, to whom I am person- 
ally known, and who told me in an ' aside ' that she would not reveal 
my identity to the Medium. This might readily have been overheard 
by the Medium, who was standing close by. [I visited Mrs. Thayer 
alone, because she had expressed an unwillingness to appear before the 
Commission, and we found it necessary to visit her as private persons.] 

Upon calling to-day, I was ushered into Mrs. Thayer's room, in which 
stood a small wooden table covered with a red cloth (which hung down, 
perhaps a foot, on all sides from the edges of the table), ready for the 
seance. Ten or twelve plain single slates lay in a pile on a piece of 
furniture near the table. 

Mrs. Thayer handed me two of these slates, which I cleaned and ex- 
amined. I then marked them on the inside, or what became, when I 



97 

laid them together, the inside, and held them while she tied them to- 
gether with a piece of white tape. After they were tied they could be 
separated an eighth of an inch without difficulty. Holding the slates 
in my hand, I examined the table and the furniture near it, and then 
took my seat at the table, Mrs. Thayer sitting opposite me. The table 
was about 2£xl i feet. At the suggestion of Mrs. Thayer, I placed the 
tied slates upon the table under the cloth, and we both placed our hands 
upon the cloth above them. After waiting for some time for indica- 
tions of writing, I withdrew the slates from under the cloth, and, as 
directed, held them with my right hand up against the under surface 
of the table, Mrs. Thayer placing her left hand upon my right as I 
held the slates. After holding them thus for some time I was told to 
withdraw them, and hold them against my forehead. Then I was told 
to open them and to scrape some pencil-dust over the inner surfaces. 
This I did, again closing the slates, which Mrs. Thayer tied as before. 
I was again directed to hold them up against the under surface of the 
table, and the Medium again placed her hand upon the hand with which 
I held them. Her hand was not wholly upon mine, but projected 
beyond it upon my wrist and towards my edge of the slates. After 
my holding the slates in this position, seemingly without result, until 
I was very wearied, the Medium suggested my laying them upon my 
lap and covering them with the table cover, which hung down more on 
my side than on hers. She said it was necessary that the slates should 
be concealed. When they were in this position we joined hands upon 
the table, and she placed her feet upon mine under the table, thus 
making, as she said, a strong "battery." This seeming to be ineffi- 
cacious, I was directed to wrap the slates in a cloth given me for the 
purpose (apparently a small table cover) and to lay them on the floor 
under the table, placing my left foot upon them. This I did, and the 
Medium placed one of her feet upon my left foot, taking my hands 
upon the table, and again forming the "battery." After some waiting, 
much calling upon the Spirit of Foster to write (this she did at inter- 
vals during the seance) and several requests for raps (which did not 
come), the Medium decided that we should get nothing during the 
sitting, and it was discontinued. I took up the slates from the floor, 
took off the cloth and untied the tape ; no mark had been made upon 
them. There had been much conversation during the sitting, the 
Medium telling me not to keep my mind on the slates, but to put my- 
self into a condition of "passivity." She declared me mediumistic, and 
said that she doubted whether she would ever be able to get results with 
me» She stated two or three times that she saw three forms behind me, 
7 



98 

but dimly, and could not describe them. One was a " mild and gentle 
lady, with a beautiful hand." To the only person whom I can remem- 
ber with a markedly beautiful hand, no one would have applied these 
adjectives. The sitting was about an hour long. 

(Copied and arranged the same evening from notes made in the car 

on the way home from the seance.) 

Geo. S. Fullerton. 

[I arranged for another seance with Mrs. Thayer, to be held some 
days later, but at the time appointed she refused to see me, giving as 
excuse indisposition. 

G. S. F.— April, 1887.] 



On the evening of January 29th, 1887, in company with Dr. J. W. 
White, I called on Mrs. Thayer, at No. 1601 North 15th Street. 

The lady seemed not to be pleased with our visit, and declared that we 
were no Spiritualists. She reluctantly agreed to give us a seance on the 
following Sunday, and on parting the gentleman of the house politely 
invited us to attend a flower seance to be held by the same lady on the 
following Thursday. 

Calling on Sunday, Mrs. Thayer excused herself on account of indis- 
position. 

The next Thursday we attended the flower seance, in which I felt 
much curiosity from the wonderful story that had been told to me by a 
Spiritualist friend, who had seen one by the same Medium several years 
before. 

The seance was held in the second story of the back building, in a 
room which the proprietor of the house informed me he had devoted 
to the purpose of Spiritualist seances. About thirty persons were as- 
sembled, and, without any examination of the premises, they were seated 
around a long dining-table. In the company Dr. Koenig was the only 
other member of the Seybert Commission present. The seance was 
opened with an 'invocation' by a lady, and during the 'manifestations' 
the company sang popular airs, such as ' Sweet by-and-bye,' etc. The 
doors and windows were all securely closed and the lights extinguished. 
Sounds were heard of objects dropping on the table, and from time to 
time matches were lit and exposed, strewed before the company, cut 
plants and flowers. There were all of the kind sold at this season by 
the florists, consisting of a pine bough, fronds of ferns, roses, pinks, 
tulips, lilies, callas (Richardia) and smilax (Myrsiphyllum). At one 



99 

time there fell on the table a heavy body, which proved to be a living 
terrapin ; at another time there appeared a pigeon which flew about the 
room. The flower manifestation ceased, and the gas was re-lit. A lady 
then made some remarks on the wonderful phenomena exhibited in 
evidence of the truth of Spiritualism, and another followed with some 
sentimentalities on the subject. The proprietor of the house declared 
that the flowers and other objects brought to view in the seance were 
not previously in the room, and their appearance could not be explained 
unless through Spiritual agency. He said that in former years, at 
similar seances, flowers had appeared in much greater quantities. The 
Medium, Mrs. Thayer, said she had not before served in a flower seance 
for several years. 

At the next act of the seance, as I understood it, a ' test ' was called 
for. A young man, whose name I did not distinctly hear, now took 
the chair of the former Medium. He promptly announced the appear- 
ance of the Spirit of an Indian girl, and then personified her by assum- 
iug a silly address in broken English. In this manner he expressed 
himself as seeing various Spirits of friends and relatives of the company 
hovering among them. They were announced by the first name in a 
rather uncertain and expectant manner, and in a few instances they 
were supposed to be recognized by some of the company, but mostly 
did not accord with their knowledge. As an example, the Medium 
informed Dr. Koenig that a tall man named Charley was holding some- 
thing over his head and encouraging him in some great enterprise. Dr. 
Koenig did not recognize the man, nor could he be made to compre- 
hend anything of the subjects of which he was informed by the 
materialized Indian girl. During this second act of the seance, I 
could detect nothing that could be attributed to other than ordinary 
human agency. The Indian girl retired, and the seance closed. 

Joseph Leidy. 



February 10th, 1887. 

I enter Col. Kase's house, 1601 North 15th Street, in company of 
Drs. Leidy, White and Mr. Sommerville, a friend of the first. 
We are received by the Colonel and pass scrutiny. The seance 
takes place in the second story sitting-room. This is furnished 
with a large oak table, a square piano, and one corner is made 
into an alcove, the curtains of which are thrown back and reveal 
several drawings in black and white — one of the young Raphael. 
Over the mantlepiece a painting representing the apparition of a Spirit- 



100 

form, to a young lady sitting in front of a fire-place. On entering this 
room find the Medium, Mrs. Thayer, engaged in seating the audience. 
She is a middle-aged lady of good proportions, hair black, color flushed, 
the light eyes look weary, the lower face rather square, deep lines 
around the mouth. She is evidently not in very good humor. After 
a while the company, between twenty and thirty persons, mostly 
women, get seated. 

Owing to the many people present I could not see what preparations 
had been made. Medium requests that the piano be moved against the 
door (to keep off illicit Spirits?). Chair placed against the door. Light 
turned out completely. Singing of "Sweet by-and-bye." Medium 
requests a lady to invoke Divine blessing. Disgusting cant. More 
singing. Darkness impenetrable. Sudden bumping noise on the table. 
Match struck by the Colonel just as something crawls over my hand 
and falls to the floor. It is a red-bellied terrapin. Some ferns appear 
neatly arranged on the table in front and to the left of the Medium. 
Expressions of gratification. Dark. Singing. A pine-bough is thrown 
against me. Screaming on account of terrapin. Match. Several 
parties have large lilies in front of them. My neighbor a lily of the 
valley (he states that his wife said before he left: "I wish you 
would get a lily of the valley"). Dark. Singing. Match. Dr. Leidy 
has some red lilies ; some smilax and a wreath are on the table. Great 
astonishment. Colonel Kase says it is wonderful, but during the Cen- 
tennial year they got tables loaded with flowers (the Medium has not 
given a flower seance for some years, she says, hence the rather meagre 
supply.) A lady points out the fact that the flowers are quite cold and 
have a sort of dew on them. But I found those before me quite dry, as 
if they had been in the room for some time. The Medium is tired and 
retires. Mrs. X. is requested to come under the influence of her Spirit- 
guides, and she does. She puts herself in an oratorical posture, eyes 
closed, and reels off the common-places of the Banner of Light: the 
Spirits are eager for investigation, but benighted men in the flesh 
cannot make the conditions, and thus continue tz wallow in darkness. 
The Spirits are kind. They do not damn those poor benighted 
ones, but still hold out, in beautiful optimism, the hope that all those 
who do want to know the truth will find it ! 

Another lady, Mrs. Y., is now called upon to put herself under 
Spirit-guidance, and she thereupon proceeds to enlighten the sheep-fold 
how it is possible that these flowers and branches and turtles can come 
through solid walls and closed windows. " It is all awfully simple ; It 
is nothing but projection ! The Spirits understand the laws of electric 



101 

projection; even the electric forces themselves understand the laws of 
nature and the currents. The electric force snatches the flower, or 
plant, and propels it along invisible wires. There is no such thing as 
solid substance, matter is permeable to these forces, and, therefore, it 
is easy to see how a terrapin can come quick as lightning through a 
wall." (Verbatim.) 

Mr. Copeland is now called upon to give the audience some tests, 
a rather inoffensive looking young man with hair standing up. The 
light is turned down; he jerks his head and body, passes his hand over 
his eyes and begins to talk in broken, childish sentences. A little 
Indian maid now controls him. The maid describes a tall, bony, 
black-haired gentleman standing near me, with a fatherly look; he is 
Charley, and holds something, as if I were undertaking some grand 
enterprise. But as I do not know Charley, Charley disappears, and 
the spirit of a Quaker gentleman comes to a lady not far from me — 
all right. Soon, however, the maid is at me again. This time it is 
William. He has something chemical, like a discovery. Have I not 
been across the water where people had the cholera and turned black 
and died? Did I not very much disappoint a young lady over there? 
Did I give her a ring? Margaret, or some name like that, now comes 
around. Have I never seen the Medium before? No. Then I should 
pay him a visit. Wants to talk with me about my past and future. 
Has much to say ; and so on. Do I not go often into a building where 
many persons work at chemistry ? Am I not sceptical ? — rather. Wants 
to cure my scepticism, and so on, ad nauseam. Me is tired, me wants 
go. Again the jerks, the rubbing of the eyes, and the Indian maid is 
once more Mr. Copeland. 

Seance terminates with the payment of one dollar, cash, at 9.30 p.m. 

Stifling atmosphere breathed for 1£ hours, for what? Quelle betisef 

Geo. A. Koenig. 



Saturday, March 26th, 1887. 
I attended a seance at the house of Col. Kase, 1601 North 15th Street, 
on Thursday evening, March 24th, Mrs. Wells acting as Medium. 
There were about thirty persons present, of whom several seemed to be 
Mediums. The seance was held in the sitting-room in the second 
story — a room separated by double doors from a smaller room behind. 
The back room, used as a Cabinet, was shut off by portieres, and the per- 
sons were arranged in front of the curtains, in the form of a deep curve, 



102 

Dr. Leidy, Dr. Knerr and myself being put in the second row. Mrs. 
Thayer directed us where to sit. The room in which we sat was lighted 
by a single gas-jet, situated some distance behind the spectators; a piece 
of music was placed before this to prevent any direct light from fall- 
ing on the curtains, and the gas was turned very low. Mrs. Wells 
entered the room used as a Cabinet, and took her seat in a chair 
opposite the curtains. Mrs. Thayer closed the curtains. 

After some time Spirits began to show themselves one by one between 
the curtains, and to whisper. Mrs. Thayer stepped forward and inter- 
preted for them, calling up persons in the circle to receive communica- 
tions. The forms were very indistinct from the circle, and apparently 
not very distinct to those called up, as they expressed some dissatisfac- 
tion. One man called up to speak with his daughter (one of the better 
forms) remarked that he "saw her putty good, but not very." One or 
two of the forms stepped out in front of the curtains (one was dressed 
as a man, one purported to be Mary, Queen of Scots), but they did not 
advance to the circle, and the light was so dim that they could not be 
seen at all clearly. Only on one or two occasions two forms appeared 
at once, and then not in front of the curtains, but one on each side of 
one of the curtains — this curtain being pulled together, as though 
some one were reaching around behind it. The appearance could very 
readily have been made by the Medium's appearing between the two 
curtains, and holding up a bit of drapery at the side of one of them. 
The audience was evidently an uncritical one. When a Spirit 
called for her husband, Mrs. Thayer, the interpreter, asked, "Has 
anyone here a wife on the other side ? " An old man present stated 
that his had died two years before. He asked if the Spirit's name 
were May. When he came back to his seat, I heard him remark to 
his neighbor that that "must have been her, but she had more flesh on 
than when I knew her." No examination was made before or after 
the seance of either room or Medium, and no tests of any sort were 
applied. The seance lasted about an hour and a-half. 

Geo. S. Fullerton, 

Secretary. 

(Copied and arranged from notes made in the car on the way home 
from this seance — Saturday evening, March 26th, 1887.) 

N. B. — I have neglected to state (though it is mentioned in my notes) 
that the seance was commenced by an "invocation" from Mrs. Cole- 
man, who sat near the curtains. It was in no wise remarkable. 

G. S. F. 



103 



Dr. Leidy. 

The undersigned, a member of The Seybert Commission, appointed 
by the University, in company with one or more of the other members, 
at different times, from March, 1884, to April, 1887, attended twelve 
seances with reputed Spiritualist Mediums. Led to view Spiritualism 
with the respect due to its importance, based on the reflection that 
many of the most intelligent and honorable of the community had be- 
come convinced of its truth, I undertook the investigation of the subject 
free from conscious prejudice, and with a desire to observe with unbi- 
ased judgment the phenomena which might be presented to me in the 
seances of Spiritualist Mediums. Of the dozen seances attended in 
company with other members of the Commission, five were held with 
three Slate-writing Mediums, two with as many Rapping Mediums, 
and five with four Materializing Mediums. All the Mediums possessed 
more or less celebrity as such among the advocates of Spiritualism. I 
further attended, unaccompanied by members of the Commission, three 
seances, of which one was held with one of the former Materializing 
Mediums, and two with other Rapping Mediums. 

The reputed phenomena or manifestations were carefully observed, 
as far as circumstances would permit, i. e., under the conditions ordi- 
narily exacted by Mediums. 

I have kept a record of my observations of the Spiritualist seances, but 
it is unnecessary to relate them here. As the result of my experience 
thus far, I must confess that I have witnessed no extraordinary mani- 
festation, such as we ordinarily hear described as evidence of commu- 
nication between this and the Spirit world. On the contrary, all the 
exhibitions I have seen have been complete failures in what was at- 
tempted or expected, or they have proved to be deceptions and tricks of 
jugglery. Sometimes accompanied by buffoonery, I never saw in them 
anything solemn or impressive, and never did they give the slightest 
positive information of interest. Having thus far failed to discover 
anything in evidence of the truth of Spiritualism, I yet remain ready 
to receive such evidence from an honest Medium. 

One of the Slate-writing Mediums, with whom we held several se- 
ances, relieved the tedium of waiting for a slate-communication by 
writing in pencil on slips of paper, under Spirit control, as we were 
assured, communications from a succession of Spirits. The hand of 
these communications was good, and in each one different as it would 
appear from different individuals. There was, however, in all a simi- 
larity of expression and grammatical construction, which indicated a 



104 

want of entire Spirit control. One of these communications, in my 
possession, reads literally thus : 

" People have thought my manner and habit very strange indeed 
regarding the Truth of Spirit control There has been many things 
practiced which I see now was wrong and foolish yet the Truth stills 
exist that we can come back and make ourselves felt you ask if I am 
pleased with what Thomas [probably Thomas R. Hazard, who was with 
us at the time] is doing I am in many respects though there are things 
best left undone and unsaid You are perfectly aware of my past feel- 
ings also of my desire to have the truth properly investigated which I 
feel it will be and the Truth and Truth only sought after by the Com- 
mittee I am more concious now than a time back Henry Seybert " 

Another communication in my possession, obtained by a friend from 
the same Medium, at another seance, is in an equally good and strik- 
ingly different hand from the former, and reads thus: "Yes both of 
those Spirits were there and were plainly seen There was others there 
that were imperceptable Alice Cary" 

As examples of communications, in irregular scrawls on slips of 
paper, in my possession, thrown from behind a screen by a Materialized 
Spirit, at a seance of Mr. Keeler, are the following: "Hello folks" " Oh 
I am a big slugger" "How is your nose Doc" "I am seeing the sad 
result of my work. H. Seibert" [sic]. The punctuation and spelling 

are carefully copied. 

Joseph Leidy. 



THE SLADE-ZOELLNER INVESTIGATION. 

Perhaps no other investigation of Spiritistic phenomena has exer- 
cised so strong an influence upon the public mind in America, at least, 
as that conducted by Professor J. C. F. Zoellner and his colleagues in 
Leipsic in 1877 and 1878. In November and December of the year 
1877 and in May of 1878, Professor Zoellner had a number of seances 
with Dr. Henry Slade, the American Medium, in Leipsic, the results 
of which he has narrated in his " Scientific Treatises," and which he 
finds of special interest in connection with certain physical specu- 
lations with which he was before this time occupied. He declares 
himself specially authorized to mention by name as present at some of 
his investigations his colleagues, Professors Fechner and Scheibner, of 
the University of Leipsic, and Professor Weber of Goettingen. These 
three, he states, were perfectly convinced of the reality of the observed 



105 

facts, and that they were not to be attributed to imposture or prestidi- 
gitation. He also mentions the presence of Professor Wundt at at least 
one of the sittings. 

The phenomena narrated by Zoellner — the bursting of the wooden 
screen, the passages of coins out of closed boxes, the abnormal actions 
of the solid wooden rings, the tying of knots in the endless cord, the 
prints made upon smoked paper by the feet of four-dimentional beings 
— all these have become classic in Spiritistic literature, and the 
accounts may be obtained in convenient form collected, arranged 
and translated into English by Mr. C. C. Massey, of Lincoln's Inn, 
London. 

Of these phenomena themselves, verification is, at this late date, 
manifestly out of the question. The only published accounts are those 
made by Zoellner, and in the absence of notes made at the time, all de- 
scriptions of phenomena given now by the other persons present would 
be valueless, except as indicating the impression made upon them at the 
time by the occurrences. 

But, though the phenomena themselves cannot be satisfactorily 
sifted, the men who were engaged in the investigation are, with the ex- 
ception of Zoellner himself, still living, and it occurred to me when in 
Germany during the past summer, that a conference with each of these 
men, and an inquiry into their qualifications for making such an inves- 
tigation into the phenomena of Spiritism, might be of no small value. 
These men are : William Wundt, Professor of Philosophy in the Uni- 
versity of Leipsic ; Gustav Theodore Fechner, now Professor Emeritus 
of Physics in the University of Leipsic; W. Scheibner, Professor of 
Mathematics in the University of Leipsic; and Wilhelm Weber, Profes- 
sor Emeritus of Physics in the University of Goettingen — all of them 
men of eminence in their respective lines of scholarship. 

On Saturday, June 19th, I called upon Professor Wundt at his home 
in Leipsic; with respect to the investigation of 1877-78 he gave me 
the following information, which I noted down during my conversation 
with him, asking him to repeat the points mentioned as I noted them, 
so as to avoid any error or misunderstanding, and which I copied out, 
with merely verbal changes, two days later. 

Professor Wundt said : 

1. That at the seances at which he himself was present (and he was 
present at two or three of them) the conditions of observation were very 
unsatisfactory. All hands had to be kept on the table, and no one was 
allowed to look under it. 

2. That all that he saw done looked as if it might have been done 
by jugglery. 



106 

3. That the writing on slates was very suspicious — the German was 
bad, just such German as Slade spoke. 

4. That Professor Weber, who was present at the sittings, was a very 
old man at the time, and presumably not an acute observer. 

5. That Professor Fechner, another of those present, was afflicted 
with an incipient cataract, and could see very little. 

6. That Professor Zoellner himself was at the time decidedly not in 
his right mind ; his abnormal mental condition being clearly indicated 
in his letters and in his intercourse with his family. 

7. That he (Professor Wundt) had not a high respect for the scien- 
tific judgment of Professor Ulrici, of Halle, who had been so much im- 
pressed by the report made by Professor Zoellner ; Professor Ulrici he 
thought literary and poetical, but not scientific. 

It will be seen that some of the points mentioned by Professor 
Wundt are suggestive ; but I will postpone an examination of his 
statements, as of those of each of the others, until they have all been 
given and can be compared. 

On the same day (June 19th) I called upon Professor Fechner, also 
at his home in Leipsic. Professor Fechner, who no longer lectures, 
being old and feeble, and suffering from cataract of the eyes, made the 
following statements, each of which I translated to him for his approval, 
after I had set it down : 

1. That he himself was present at but two sittings, and that these 
were not very decisive. 

2. That he did not look upon Slade as a juggler, but accepted the 
objective reality of the facts ; that he did this, however, not on the 
strength of his own observations, for these were unsatisfactory, but be- 
cause he had faith in Professor Zoellner's powers of observation. 

3. That what he saw might have been produced by juggling. 

4. That the sittings at which he was present were held at night, and 
that he could not remember what sort of a light they had. 

5. That Zoellner's mental derangement came on very gradually, so 
that it would be difficult to say when it began ; but that from the time 
of his experiments with Slade it was more pronounced. He (Fechner) 
did not think, however, that it incapacitated Zoellner as an observer, 
the derangement being emotional ; but, such as it was, it was clearly 
shown in his family and in his intercourse with friends. 

6. Professor Fechner referred me to Professors Scheibner and 
Weber for information, saying that these two were present at most of 
the sittings. 



107 

I failed at this time to meet Professor Scheibner, who, though resident 
in Leipsic, happened to be away from home on a visit ; but, having made 
an appointment with him by letter, I returned to Leipsic on July 3d, 
and called upon him at his home ; upon this occasion he gave me 
more full and satisfactory details concerning Professor Zoellner's in- 
vestigation than I succeeded in obtaining from any of the others. The 
notes which I made during my conversation with him I translated to 
him, and corrected in accordance with his suggestions before leaving 
his house. After my return to Halle I copied my notes out in full, 
and sent them by mail to Professor Scheibner, with the request that he 
correct them and return them to me at Berlin, signing his name to 
them if they correctly represented his opinions. In answer he enclosed 
me the copy which I had sent him, corrected where he thought the 
notes inexact, and an accompanying letter, stating that he did not for- 
bid me to use the material which he had given me, but that he did not 
wish to set his name to any publication, if only for the reason that he 
was not sufficiently familiar with the English to judge accurately as to 
the shades of meaning, and thus could not say whether he accurately 
agreed with the notes as they stand, or not. 

The copy which he corrected and returned to me I place at length 
in this Report, merely translating his corrections (very literally), and 
inserting them at the points indicated by himself. They are enclosed 
in quotation marks. In some instances, my desire for exactitude in 
the translations has resulted in very bad English ; the shape of my 
own paragraphs is due to the time and manner of their framing, and to 
a reluctance to making any changes in their form afterwards. 

The copy reads as follows : 

On July 3d, 1886, 1 visited Professor W. Scheibner, at his rooms, 
in Leipsic, and obtained from him the following information concerning 
Professor Zoellner's Spiritistic experiments with Dr. Henry Slade, the 
American Medium : 

1. Professor Scheibner thinks that he was present at three or four 
of the regular seances with Slade. Slade came to Professor Zoellner's 
rooms; they sat around a table for perhaps half an hour, and then, 
after the seance was over, they spent an hour or two sitting informally 
in the same room, or in the next room, and talking. During these in- 
formal conversations surprising things would occur. Raps would now 
and then be heard, and objects would unexpectedly be thrown about 
the room. In these conversations Professor Scheibner was present per- 
haps five or six times. Some of these took place during the day, and 
some in the evening. 



108 

2. Professor Scheibner said that each single thing that he saw might 
possibly have been jugglery, " although he perceived nothing that raised 
a direct suspicion." 

The whole number of incidents taken together, however, surprised 
him, and seemed scarcely explicable as jugglery, for there did not seem 
to be the necessary time or means for preparing so many tricks, " which 
often connected themselves surprisingly with desires casually expressed 
in momentary conversations." 

Professor Scheibner said, however, that he did not regard himself as 
competent to form an opinion which should have scientific weight, be- 
cause: 

(a) He knows nothing about jugglery ; 

(6) He was merely a passive spectator, and could not, properly 
speaking, make observations — could not suggest conditions, " or gain 
the control which seemed necessary ;" and 

(c) He is short-sighted, "and might easily have left unnoticed some- 
thing essential." 

He says merely, that to him, subjectively, jugglery did not seem a 
good " or sufficient " explanation of the phenomena. 

3. Professor Scheibner said that he had never seen anything of the 
kind before. He had never even, since his childhood, seen any exhi- 
bitions of jugglery; he does not go to see such things, because he is so 
short-sighted that if he went he would see nothing. In this connection 
he repeated his statement that from this, among other causes, he did 
not regard himself as competent to give an opinion. He said that many 
persons in Germany had demanded his opinion, but that he had refused 
it because he regarded his subjective impression, without objective proofs, 
as scientifically valueless. 

4. Professor Scheibner said that he did not believe in these things 
before. He came to the seances because Professor Zoellner was a per- 
sonal friend. He has seen very little of the sort since. 

That little has been in the presence of a lady in Leipsic through 
whom raps occurred, and psychography. This last phenomenon consisted 
in communication through a little contrivance, furnished with an index 
or pointer, which answered questions by pointing to letters laid out be- 
fore it. This it did when the lady placed her hand on the machine. 
The questions were "usually" not asked mentally, but spoken out. 
There were no tests applied to these phenomena, no conditions of exact 
investigation. Professor Scheibner " holds suspicion of conscious decep- 
tion to be out of the question." 

5. Professor Zoellner was, said Professor Scheibner, a man of keen 



109 

mind, but in his investigations apt to see "by preference" what lay in 
the path of his theory. He could " less easily " see what was against 
his theory. He was childlike and trustful in character, and might 
easily have been deceived by an impostor. He expected everyone to 
be honest and frank as he was. He started with the assumption that 
Slade meant to be honest with him. He would have thought it wrong 
to doubt Slade's honesty* Professor Zoellner, said Professor Scheibner, 
set out to find proof for four-dimentional space, in which he was already 
inclined to believe. His whole thought was directed to that point. 

6. Professor Scheibner thinks that the mental disturbance under 
which Zoellner suffered later, might be regarded as, at this time, incipi- 
ent. He became more and more given to fixing his attention on a few 
ideas, and incapable of seeing what was against them. Towards the last 
he was passionate when criticized. Professor Scheibner would n ot say that 
Professor Zoellner's mental disturbance was pronounced and full-formed, 
so to speak, but that it was incipient, and, if Zoellner had lived longer 
would have fully developed. Zoellner himself, "whose brothers and 
sisters frequently* suffered from mental disease, often feared lest a simi- 
lar fate should come upon him." 

7. Professor Scheibner gives no opinion on Spiritism. He can only 
say that he cannot explain the phenomena that he saw. 

8. Professor Weber, said Professor Scheibner, " attended the Zoell- 
ner-Slade experiments under the same circumstances as he (Scheibner) 
himself." 

9. Professor Zoellner's book, said Professor Scheibner, would create 
the impression that Weber and Fechner and he agreed with Zoellner 
throughout in his opinion of the phenomena " and their interpretation ;" 
but this, he said, is not the case. 

Halle a. S., July 5th, 1886. 

So much for the information given by Professor Scheibner. It now 
remained to see Professor Wilhelm Weber, and on the evening of July 
12th I called upon him at his house in Goettingen. Of his statements 
I took notes during my conversation with him, as in the former 
instances, and copied and arranged them the same evening at my hotel. 
Professor Weber is now eighty-three years old, and does not lecture. 
He is extremely excitable and somewhat incoherent when excited. I 
found it difficult to induce him to talk slowly enough, and systematically 
enough, for me to make my notes. Professor Weber said : 

* "Dessen Geschwister mehrfach" etc. — the words may be taken in two senses. 



110 

1. That he thought the things he saw in the seances with Slade were 
different from jugglery. 

2. That he did not think there was time or opportunity for Slade to 
prepare deceptions. 

3. That he himself knew nothing of jugglery, nor did Professor 
Zoellner. 

4. That he can testify to the facts as described by Zoellner, and that 
he could not himself have described the occurrences better than they 
are described in Zoellner's book : — to the facts he is willing to testify, 
the means he declares unknown to him, but does not regard jugglery as 
a sufficient explanation. If another can understand, he said, how 
jugglery can explain the facts, well and good — he can not. 

5. That he had never seen anything of the kind before, and has not 
since ; it being his only experience of Spiritualism. 

6. That he had the greatest freedom to experiment and set condi- 
tions, and that the conditions were favorable to observation. 

7. That he regarded Professor Fechner as one of the best observers 
in the world, and Professor Scheibner as an excellent observer. 

8. That Professor Zoellner was not at that time, in any sense, in an 
abnormal mental condition. 

Professor Weber seemed unwilling to speak decidedly on the subject, 
but showed that he leaned to the Spiritistic interpretation of the facts. 
He said that the things done indicated intelligence on the part of the doer. 

Having now before us the testimony given by these survivors of the 
famous investigation, I will collect briefly the facts relating to each of 
those concerned — adding in one or two cases from other sources — and 
point out the nature and value of their testimony to the occurrences 
recorded by Professor Zoellner. 

1. As to Professor Wundt, who is by profession an experimental 
psychologist, and an observer. Professor Wundt did not regard the 
investigation, so far as he participated, as in any respect thorough or 
satisfactory. The conditions of observation were not present. When 
called upon by Professor Ulrici to describe the occurrences as he saw 
them, he said he would not willingly describe what he had not had 
opportunity to observe. 

2. As to Professor Zoellner, the chief witness and author of the book 
published, a number of points are worthy of note. 

(1.) The question of his mental condition at the time of the investiga- 
tion. It is asserted by Baron Hellenbach (see Geburt und Tod etc., 
Wien, 1885, S. 96) that Zoellner was of sound mind up to his death. 



Ill 

The statement should have due weight, but the author's general atti- 
tude towards Spiritism should not be overlooked. I do not consider 
his testimony for Zoellner's sanity as good as that of Fechner or 
Scheibner against. Of the four men mentioned as connected with him, 
Wundt, Weber, Fechner and Scheibner, three (all except Weber) are 
decidedly of the opinion that his mental condition was not normal. The 
opinion of Wundt, as of a man whose profession would not permit him 
to speak hastily upon this topic, I would regard as of special value ; 
but if we rule that out upon the ground that Wundt was not impressed 
by the investigation, and might naturally be inclined to underrate 
Zoellner, who was, we have left the opinions of Fechner and Scheib- 
ner, both Zoellner's colleagues at Leipsic, both particular friends of 
Zoellner, and both inclined to agree with him as to the reality of the 
facts he describes. Both of them regarded Zoellner at the time as of 
more or less unsound mind. His disease, as described by them, seems 
to have been chiefly emotional, showing itself in a passionate dislike of 
contradiction, and a tendency to overlook any evidence contrary to a 
cherished theory. 

To the general change in his nature due to his disease Professor 
Scheibner testifies ; and Professor Fechner's belief as to his mental con- 
dition is specially worthy of note from the fact that, although recogniz- 
ing it to be abnormal, he still holds his powers of observation to be 
sound, and upon this ground is inclined to assent to the facts described. 
If anyone could be tempted to make Zoellner as sane as possible, it 
would be one in the position of Professor Fechner. Professor Weber's 
testimony I will examine later. Upon the question whether the pecu- 
liar form of Zoellner's disease would be likely to affect his powers of 
observation, the following points may throw some light. 

(2.) It is evident, both from what Zoellner has himself printed and 
from what Professor Scheibner has said, that Zoellner's interest in the 
investigation centered in his attempt to prove experimentally what he 
already held to be speculatively true as to a fourth dimension of space. 
In a paper published in the Quarterly Journal of Science, for April, 
1878, he says : 

" At the end of my first treatise, already finished in manuscript in 
the course of August, 1877, 1 called attention to the circumstance that 
a certain number of physical phenomena, which, by ' synthetical con- 
clusions d priori,' might be explained through the generalized concep* 
tion of space and the platonic hypothesis of projection, coincided with 
so-called Spiritualistic phenomena. Cautiously, however, I said : — ' To 
those of my readers who are inclined to see in Spiritualistic phenomena 



112 

an empirical confirmation of those phenomena above deduced in regard 
to their theoretical possibility, I beg to observe that from the point of 
view of idealism there must first be given a precise definition and 
criticism of objective reality,' " etc. Now this reference to Spiritualistic 
phenomena was made before Zoellner had seen anything of the kind, 
and his attitude was evidently a receptive one. Moreover, we have 
Professor Scheibner's testimony to the fact that during the whole 
investigation his attention was entirely directed towards the subject of 
the fourth dimension, and an experimental demonstration of its 
existence. Bearing in mind, therefore, the mental attitude in which, 
and the object with which, Zoellner approached this investigation, we 
cannot look upon any subjective, or emotional, mental disturbance, 
which results, as described, in making him narrow his attention more 
and more upon a few ideas, and disregard or find it difficult to observe 
what seems contrary to them, as without objective significance, par- 
ticularly where we know the man to be a total stranger to investiga- 
tions of such a nature as this one, and not only quite ignorant as to 
possible methods of deception, but unwilling to doubt the integrity of 
the Medium. 

(3.) There are things in Zoellner's own accounts which indicate a 
certain lack of caution and accuracy on his part, and tend to lessen 
one's confidence in his statements. As an instance of inaccuracy, I 
may mention the statement he makes in his article in the Quarterly 
Journal of Science as to the opinions of his colleagues. Professor 
Zoellner says : 

" I reserve to later publication, in my own treatises, the description 
of further experiments obtained by me in twelve seances with Mr. Slade, 
and, as I am expressly authorized to mention, in the presence of my 
friends and colleagues, Professor Fechner, Professor Wilhelm Weber, 
the celebrated electrician from Goettingen, and Herr Scheibner, Pro- 
fessor of Mathematics in the University of Leipsic, who are perfectly 
convinced of the reality of the observed facts, altogether excluding 
imposture or prestidigitation." 

Here the attitude of the four men is not correctly described, and 
Professor Zoellner's statement does them injustice, as Professor Scheib- 
ner remarked. At least two of the men were merely inclined to accept 
the facts, and to these two the words "perfectly convinced" will not 
apply. 

As one out of numerous instances of lack of caution, I may refer to 
Zoellner's statements, that at certain times writing was heard upon the 
slates, giving no proof whatever to show that the writing was really 



113 

done at the time of hearing the sounds, and apparently quite ignorant 
of the fact that deception may readily be practiced on this point. 

3. As to Professor Fechner. The fact is admitted that he was, at 
the time of the investigation, suffering from cataract, which made all 
observation extremely defective. Moreover, he was present at but two 
of the sittings, and has stated that he did not regard these as very 
decisive. His attitude towards the phenomena described is based on 
his faith in Professor Zoellner's powers of observation, and not on what 
he saw himself. He does not, therefore, as an independent witness 
would, add anything to the force of Professor Zoellner's testimony. 

4. As to Professor Scheibner. His position is simply that he cannot 
see how the whole series of phenomena can reasonably be attributed to 
jugglery, though he admits that each single thing he saw, alone con- 
sidered, might possibly be. He does not regard himself, however, as 
able to give an opinion which should have objective value ; because he 
was merely a passive spectator, and could not, properly speaking, make 
observations — could not suggest conditions, — because he knows absolutely 
nothing about jugglery, and the possibilities of deception, and because 
he is so short-sighted that he may easily have overlooked something 
of importance — so short-sighted that he never goes to see a juggler, 
because he sees nothing. 

5. As to the last witness, Professor Weber, his testimony agrees more 
decidedly with that of Professor Zoellner. He was present at eight 
stances, declares the occurrences to have been as represented by Pro- 
fessor Zoellner, and denies that Zoellner was in any sense insane. But 
Professor Weber is from Goettingen, and was at the time of the investi- 
gation in Leipsic on a visit ; it is not improbable that those of Professor 
Zoellner's colleagues, who lived and worked at the same University 
with him, may have had better opportunities for judging as to his 
mental condition than one who only saw him occasionally. Moreover, 
Professor Weber's opinion as to the qualifications of the men with 
whom he was associated does not seem to have been always sound. 
One who could look upon Professor Fechner as one of the best observers 
in the world, and Professor Scheibner, as for the purpose in hand, an 
excellent observer, neglecting entirely to note that one was partly 
blind and that the other could not see well, might readily overlook the 
fact of a not very pronounced mental aberration on the part of a third 
person. And as to Professor Weber's opinion of the phenomena, it is 
well to note that Professor Weber was seventy-four years old at the 
time, had had no previous experience in investigations of this kind 
and was quite ignorant of the arts of the juggler. Whatever may be 

8 



114 

a man's powers of reflection at seventy-four, it is natural to suppose 
that his powers of perception, especially when exercised in a quite new 
field, are not at that age what they were some years previously. 

Summary. 

Thus it would appear that of the four eminent men whose names 
have made famous the investigation, there is reason to believe one, 
Zoellner, was of unsound mind at the time, and anxious for experi- 
mental verification of an already accepted hypothesis ; another, Fech- 
ner, was partly blind, and believed because of Zoellner's observations ; 
a third, Scheibner, was also afflicted with defective vision, and not 
entirely satisfied in his own mind as to the phenomena ; and a fourth, 
Weber, was advanced in age, and did not even recognize the disabilities 
of his associates. No one of these men had ever had experiences of 
this sort before, nor was any one of them acquainted with the ordinary 
possibilities of deception. The experience of our Commission with Dr. 
Slade would suggest, that the lack of such knowledge on their part was 
unfortunate. 

A consideration of all these circumstances places, it seems to me, 
this famous investigation in a somewhat new light, and any estimate 
of Zoellner's testimony, based merely upon the eminence in science of 
his name and those of his collaborateurs, neglecting to give attention 
to their disqualifications for this kind of work, cannot be a fair or a 
true estimate. 

In concluding this Report, I give sincere' thanks to all of these 
gentlemen for their courtesy and frankness-— a frankness which has 
alone made it possible for me to collect this evidence ; and which, con- 
sidering the nature of the evidence, must be regarded as most gener- 
ous. To Professor Scheibner, especially, my thanks are due for the 
trouble he has taken in helping me to make my notes exact and 
truthful. 

Geo. S. Fullekton. 



115 



Dr. Knerr. 

In 1884 rumors reached me of remarkable Spiritual communications 
from a revered friend and relative, Dr. Hering. These communica- 
tions had come through a slate-writing Medium by the name of Pat- 
terson, and were received by two gentlemen whose names I am not at 
liberty to mention, but whom I will call A. and B. Both were promi- 
nent men, and both had become thorough believers in Spiritualism after 
several sittings with Mrs. Patterson. A. claimed to have received 
personal benefit from medicines thus prescribed, and learned the cir- 
cumstances of his son's death which had occurred in some mysterious 
manner far away from home. B. has since died, and communications 
under his signature have come through this same Medium. 

The manifestations in this province of Spiritualism, Independent Slate- 
Writing, would seem to be of a nature more tangible and direct than 
those of so-called Materializing or Trance Mediums, and, therefore, 
in this instance I determined to test to the utmost what had been 
reported to me concerning communications from one who stood so near 
in life. 

Although I received a number of messages at my first visit, written 
in pencil, in many different handwritings, which the Medium alleged 
were written by Spirit- control of her hand, I received but one or two 
in the slate. The slate was a small double slate, joined together 
with hinges, about 10 inches by 12 inches in dimension. Inside of the 
slates, written on a slip of paper, carefully folded, I placed the question 
" Can I obtain a communication from Dr. Hering which will be char- 
acteristic of himself?" A small piece of slate pencil chipped from an 
ordinary pencil, perhaps an eighth of an inch long, was placed within 
the slates, together with the written question. The slates were then 
tightly screwed together at the open end, by myself, with the blade of 
an old knife which was at hand to serve the purpose of a screw- 
driver. It was then placed by the Medium in her lap, under the 
table, one hand, the left, resting upon the slate, the other hand 
remaining on top of the table, writing, with a lead pencil, messages in 
different handwritings, on paper. 

These messages came in characters bold as John Hancock's, and in 
chirography as small and neat as the writing of Charlotte Bronte, whose 
manuscript the compositor is said to have deciphered with the aid of a 
magnifying glass ; and between these extremes were a dozen or more 
styles as varied and marked as one could wish. The purport of these 
messages, which were written rather quickly, and without perceptible 



116 

thought or hesitation, changing from one handwriting to another with- 
out the least apparent difficulty, was in some instances the veriest 
twaddle, while others contained tolerably good sense, even in language 
rather above the Medium, unless appearances were misleading, for she 
looked the embodiment of ignorant simplicity, and spoke far from 
grammatically. 

The table at which we sat was a very ordinary little sewing-table, 
without any drawer or compartment, and before sitting down I 
examined it top and bottom, a privilege freely accorded. We had sat 
about ten minutes when the Medium brought up the slate with the 
little piece of pencil, which I had scratched with a knife for identifica- 
tion, lying on top of the slate. The screw was in its place, seemingly 
as I had put it. I was requested to remove the screw, which I did, 
and found written across the inside surface of one of the slates the 
words " I will try to accede to your wish," signed with the initials of 
my departed friend, to whose handwriting it was not dissimilar. I 
was much puzzled by this answer, I confess, and immediately 
placed within the slates another question, this time addressed to the 
name of another deceased friend. Again I screwed up the slates with 
my own hand, and kept my eyes riveted on the hands of the Medium 
as well as my position would permit, without getting up and bending 
over the table. I did not have long to wait before an answer came as 
before, again signed with the initials of the person addressed. How 
the writing came in the slate I could not surmise. 

The following are specimens of the communications which were 
written by the Medium's controlled, possibly self-controlled, free, right 
hand, at my first visit: — 

(In a fine, light, legible hand.) 

Cannot say wether we can control the slate or no. will do our 
utmost to do so there are times when we cannot get the proper 
influences nor find the right conditions. C Hering 



(In a close, heavy hand.) 

we have quite as much power over you as over any other medium, 
mediumistic forces are not confined to a few, but exist to some extent 
in all. be patient we will do what we can. H 



(In a sprawling back hand, the same as a subsequent one, signed Thomas Lister.) 

The friend you have asked for is here and will do what he can to 
comply with your wish it is not necessary that you should sit with 



117 

any medium to convince yourself of this truth you have enough of 
this power to get almost any sort of manifestations you should ask for 
they will develope without any effort on your part but you can 
materially assist them T L 

(In a neat and precise feminine hand.) 

There stands by thy chair a venerable man who had passed through 
many years of work in* his profession on the earth plane he is one 
that doth influence and impress thee to do many things when in the 
body was a phisician of the homeopathic school he sayeth that he 
doth feel the same interest in the progruss of the medical fraternity as 
when in the body, appeareth to be one of strict integrity and ranked 
high as a thinker thou hast many years to stay in the form and 
through thee a work will be completed that none other can do 

L Mott 

(In a small, rather indistinct feminine hand.) 

I dont think the doctors knew what my trouble was. I know if doctor 
Hering or Raue had treated my case I would still be in my body but 
its no difference as far as I am concerned I have found this life far the 
best leaving my mother was hard, but now I know how to get back to 
her I am content C S Clara Swencke 



(In a plain masculine hand.) 

if you prepare a slate the doctor will give you a message on it in 
his own handwrite and one characteristic of him ES W 



(In a small, rather illegible hand.) 

My friend Tiedemann made a mistake in the medicine he prepared 
for me he never for a moment thought it would prove anything but a 
help but it had the effect of sending me to the higher life 

W Moewitzeb 



(In a large, generons, open hand.) 

Yea if thee dost fix a slate so as to satisfy thyself thy friend will 
write on it and give thee a description of his birth into everlasting life 

Elias Hicks 



(In a very indistinct feminine hand.) 

cannot say wether we can procure the presence of any one just now 
that can write music were it possible to have any one conversant with 
it they could not only write one but many notes for you 

(Signature indistinct.) 



118 

(In a small, cramped hand of almost microscopic fineness supposed to be Charlotte Bronte, 
and occupying but very little more space than on this printed page. 

The future holds much for you of success, the later portion of this 
and the whole of the next will be filled with prosperity you have a 
band of the more advanced spirits about you and were you to follow 
your first impressions you would never fail in your judgment C B 



(In a clear scholarly hand.) 

a man of few words when in the body I still have the same peculi- 
arities will with your permission become one of your guiding band 

Abernethy 



(In a bold masculine hand). 

Sit for ten or fifteen minuets two evenings in the week and thus help 
perfect the powerful gifts you have, through them you can do much 
good both for others and yourself T N 



(In the same hand as a preceding communication signed T L.) 

Be patient ; the party that wrote on the slate before is trying to do 
it over we sometimes have a difficulty in doing this 

T Lister 



(In a slow, labored, uncouth hand.) 

I know one thing and that is that they didn't make any head- 
way in killing me when they hung me nor even when they scooped my 
brains out afterward — damn the doctors — damn the preachers — I hate 
them all they lied to me preachers priests and all they told me it 
was all right but I have found out its all wrong. I havent seen Mrs 
Reed nor do I want to I never was sorry that I killed her, it don't make 
a saint out of a man to send him out the way I had to go — its only kill- 
ing — they were as bad as I was — I cant see — its dark 

MC Ginnis.* 



(In an ordinary feminine hand.) 

Put a piece of paper on a stand place a pencil on it and I will try 
to make the scale for you at home there is a power that is growing on 
you that will enable me to do this in a few times of trying I could 
write my own hand this is my first time of coming here so that 
makes it harder for me to get control B 

* McGinnis was a murderer recently hung for the brutal killing of his mother- 
in-law. Particulars of the murder, execution and autopsy were in all the local 
papers. 



119 

(This doggerel came in answer to a question whether the Spirits could write poetry, and is in a 
hand not dissimilar to the preceding communication, although the signatures differ.) 

When the clear bright sun was shining 

Then they took my cherished form 
And they bore it to the church yard 

To consign it to the worm 

Well no matter that was only 

The clay dress your loved one wore 
God had robed her for an angel 

She had need of this no more 

Though the tears fell fast and faster 

Yet you would not call me back 
Nay be glad her feet no longer 

Tread life's rough and thorny track 

Yes be glad the father took her 

Took her whilst her heart was pure 
Oh be glad he did not leave her 

All life's trials to endure 

AC 



(In a sprawling hand.) 

Your friend has lost the Control I cannot say wether it will be 
possible to regain it now or no I find it hard work to get any hold 
at all. A M 



(Each letter distinct, as a child would print the alphabet.) 

Chief there cant come any answer the magnetic current is broken 
for want of power we go now but will come in your own wigwam 

Howondo 



At the following seances I received slate writings repeatedly. Some- 
times the slate would scarcely be in the Medium's hands before a mes- 
sage appeared, each time with the little pencil on top. I was told that 
I was an excellent Medium, that, if I cultivated the faculty, would 
soon myself be able to obtain these slate writings. I was also asked to 
prepare a slate secured in any way I wished, and had the promise that 
a message would be written within it. I acceded to the request and 
took a slate of my own, tied it up in every direction with twine, and 



120 

put my private seal upon it in several places where I had knotted the 
string. This slate the Spirits could not overcome. I never received 
the promised message. I never even had the slate returned to me. 
After remaining in the Medium's possession for several months, she 
having changed her residence in the meantime, she told me the slate 
had disappeared and somehow must have gotten lost in moving. At 
any rate the slate had been spirited away somehow. I will here men- 
tion that at about the third or fourth sitting I asked permission to watch 
the slate while it was under the table, which was freely granted, but 
on this occasion, and whenever I did so, there were no results. 

On one occasion we took the trouble to bring Mrs. Patterson to a 
room in the house of our departed friend. She was here among a small 
circle of intimate friends and members of the family, some inclined to 
belief and others skeptics. She failed utterly to obtain as much as even 
a scratch inside of the slates, although communications on paper came 
thick and fast. I may mention that on this occasion several persons sat 
with the slate continually in full view. 

I had almost decided to drop Mrs. Patterson and her slate writing, 
although reluctant to do so, because I had no certain and positive 
evidence of fraud with which to confront my friend, who was getting 
impatient at my slowness in accepting all I had seen, when I resolved 
to push my investigations to a point of certainty, one way or an- 
other, and hit upon the little scheme of going prepared, at my next 
visit to Mrs. Patterson, with a mirror in my pocket which I could 
hold under the table at an angle that would reflect whatever occur- 
red on the other side of the table, in the Medium's lap, the accus- 
tomed position of the mysterious slate. The sitting was held in broad 
daylight, and the table was so placed that the Medium was seated 
with her back to a window, affording sufficient light for the experiment. 
I purposely avoided removing my overcoat on this day, because I wished 
to hide my movements as much as possible, and sat down at my side of 
the table with considerable misgiving as to the result of taking liberties 
with the Spirits. The Medium this time had on her table a new slate, 
a larger one, one which she said had belonged to the celebrated Slade 
who had himself received messages on it. She said her old slate was 
broken, which was probably true ; when I had last seen it it was in a 
battered condition. She asked if it would make any difference to me if 
she used the new slate. The only apparent difference between the slates 
was that this one was larger and did not close with a screw, therefore, 
thought I, more easily manipulated ; consequently I did not withhold 
my consent. I wrote upon a slip of paper my question, "Will Dr. H. advise 



121 

me what to do for Juliet (an old colored patient) ?" I folded over the slip 
of paper five times, put it in the slate with a small stub of pencil, and 
down the slates went into the lap of the Medium where I could see 
them, lying plainly reflected in my little mirror which I had slipped out 
of my pocket and laid across my knees at the proper angle of reflec- 
tion. 

Mrs. Patterson first wrote a letter-sheet full of alleged Spirit com- 
munications, and handed them to me across the table for perusal. 
I took the sheet with one hand and while ostensibly scanning the writ- 
ten page, with the other hand I carefully adjusted my little mirror, on 
which my downcast and watchful eyes were fixed, when lo ! in the 
mirror I beheld a hand, closely resembling that of the Medium, 
stealthily insert its fingers between the leaves of the slate, take out the 
little slip, unfold and again fold it, grasp the little pencil, which had 
rolled to the front while the slate was tilted that way, and with rapid 
but noiseless motion (had there been the least noise from the pencil, it 
would have been drowned by the fit of coughing, which, at that instant, 
seized the Medium) write across the slate from left to right, a few lines; 
then the leaves of the slate were closed, the little pencil laid on the top, 
and, over all, two hands were folded as if in benediction. The woman 
opposite me, to whom the hands belonged (unless they were Spirit hands) 
sat with uplifted eyes, a calm expression of innocence upon her face. 
After holding the slates so for a moment or two, and after calling to the 
Spirit friends " to come and please write in the slate," she produced 
them, saying, " It has come ! " 

Of course, I did all I could to master my indignation, which, at 
that moment, was extreme, and quietly opening the slates, I read the 
message pretending to have come from high authority, " The channels 
are obstructed, give Arsenic, Bryonia and Pulsatilla in succeeding 
doses, an hour apart ! " The last words were somewhat illegible, and 
Mrs. Patterson suggested another trial ; she thought the Spirits would 
write it plainer. Again the slates went down; again I saw the hand at 
work as before. This second time the hurriedly written message was 
not much plainer than the first. Mrs. Patterson, who was better versed 
in deciphering Spirit dispatches than I, offered to read it for me, but 
remembering that "all good things are three," I requested a third trial. 
After this last experiment, in which again, for the third time, in my 
little mirror, I saw the stealthy fingers write on the slate, I told the 
Medium I was satisfied, smothered my indignant anger, and left the 
house as quickly as I could. For the larger part of a year I had in- 
vestigated in good faith this department of Spiritualism, which, in this 
Medium's case, had turned out a downright fraud. 



122 

Not long after my last interview with Mrs. Patterson it was my 
good fortune to meet with an unprofessional Medium, a young gentle- 
man of reputed honor and veracity, to whom I was introduced by 
a friend who had known him from childhood, and vouched for his 
honesty. This young man's Mediumistic abilities had begun to de- 
velop with the planchette, and had reached the stage in which a drum and 
sundry musical instruments were played behind a curtain where he 
sat entranced, with his hands tightly bound together by a handkerchief 
or cord. These seances were continued with regularity on certain 
nights in the week, and were confined strictly to the family circle and 
to a few privileged friends. There was, therefore, no temptation to de- 
ceive for gain. I came into the circle as an observer, not as believer, 
but was impressed by the phenomena witnessed at the first seance in 
which the Medium was under Indian control. There were strange 
sounds, guttural tones and whoops which really might have emanated 
from a wild son of the forest. A drum, an accordion, a zither, 
a mouth-organ were all played upon. The drumsticks kept time to 
music, rapped on the wall, appeared above the edge of the curtain 
several times, brightly illuminated, as if dipped in electric light or 
some phosphorescent substance. As I have said, I was impressed, and 
might have ended in complete conversion, by manifestations from so 
trustworthy a source, and vouched for in such perfect sincerity, had it 
not, in an unlucky moment, occurred to me to apply a little harmless 
test. 

The test consisted simply in putting a dab of printer's ink on one of 
the drumsticks at the very last moment before the seance began. The 
result could not prove physically injurious to the Medium, who had 
challenged investigation, nor to any one in the circle. The result 
was startling. Being accorded the privilege of tying the Medium's 
hands, I proceeded to do so with a stout cord, using a certain knot 
which I believe has never been known to slip or come undone. 
This accomplished, and while some one else fastened the Medium 
securely to his chair, with his back to the instruments on the table, 
the ink, concealed in a pocket-handkerchief, was applied. In this 
position we left the Medium, the lights were lowered and the music 
began. Soon were heard the deep breathings preceding the trance, 
then the 'Indian' began to manifest, at first somewhat sullenly, as if not 
pleased with the conditions, some of the instruments sounded, and at 
last the drumsticks began their tattoo. At the close of the seance, when 
the curtains were drawn and the lights turned up, the Medium was 
found in his chair with his hands still tied, but great was the astonish- 



123 

ment of everyone present at the marvelous condition of the Medium's 
hands. How in the world printer's ink could have gotten smeared 
over them while under control of ' Deerfoot, the Indian,' no one, not 
even the Medium, could fathom. 

I believe there is an explanation for these or similar phenomena, but 
I must leave it to the ingenious and adroit expounders of Spiritualist 
philosophy. 

*■ Calvin B. Knerk. 



124 



MEDIUMISTIC DEVELOPMENT. 

At my very first seance, as a member of this Commission, I was 
told by the Spirit of Elias Hicks, through Mrs. Patterson, that I 
was gifted by nature with great Mediumistic power. Another Me- 
dium, with whom I had a session shortly afterwards (I cannot re- 
member his name, but he advertised himself as a great ' Australian 
Medium'), professed himself quite unable to exert any power in 
the presence of a Medium so much more powerful than himself. 
' Father Holland,' the control of Mrs. "Williams, in New York, assured me 
that I merely needed development to have Spiritual manifestations at my 
own home ; and Joseph Caffray was so emphatic in his assertions of 
my extraordinary Spiritual capabilities, that I began to think that it was 
my duty to quicken these dormant powers and not to let them ' fust in me 
unused,' and if successful, when I had become fully ' developed,' I 
could offer myself to my fellow Commissioners as a corpus vile on which 
every experiment could be made, and at a great saving of expense. 

Spiritualists constantly reproach investigators of Spiritualism with 
faint-heartedness and lack of patience ; they allege that at the very 
first rebuff all investigating ardor cools, and that one failure is deemed 
sufficient to condemn a whole system. 

If the case be really thus, the Spiritualists have a show of reason 
for this objection, and it behooves the Seybert Commission to give no 
ground for it. 

After much deliberation I decided to put myself in the hands 
of Caffray for ' development.' I preferred this Medium, first, because 
he was the most emphatic of all in his assertion of my almost 
unrivaled Mediumistic powers, and in his confidence that indications 
of Spiritual growth would be manifest in three or four weeks, and at 
the end of six weeks or of two months I might celebrate my Spiritual 
majority by slatefuls of messages; and, secondly, Mr. Hazard assured me 
again and again that Caffray was the 'greatest Medium in the country ;' 
and did not Mr. Hazard, by way of proof, show me a stoppered vial 
containing a card, on which, through Caffray's Mediumship, a message 
had been written while the closed vial was fast held in his closed hand? 

The first step was the purchase of two slates from Caffray, for which 
I gave him several dollars. They were common enough to look at, 
but ah ! they had been for months in his Materializing Cabinet and had 



125 

absorbed Spiritual power to the point of saturation, and fairly exuded 
it. I brought them carefully from New York, and folded them in 
black muslin, and laid them away in a dark drawer. 

CafFray told me that with a beginner the Spirits found it somewhat 
easier to write with French chalk than with slate pencil. So I bought a 
box of a dozen pieces, such as tailors use. 

The instructions which I received from Caffray were to keep these 
slates carefully in the dark, and every evening at about the same hour 
to sit in total darkness, with my hands resting on them for about a half 
or three-quarters of an hour ; to maintain a calm, equable, passive state 
of mind, even to think of any indifferent subject rather than to concen- 
trate my thoughts too intently on the slate-writing. There could be no 
question of the result. A Medium of my unusual and excessive power 
would find, at the end of three weeks, faint zig-zag scratches within the 
closed slates, and these scratches would gradually assume shape, until at 
last messages would be legible, probably at the end of six weeks, or of 
three months at the very farthest. 

In addition to this, I must wear, night and day, a piece of magnetized 
paper, about six inches square, a fresh piece every night and morning ; 
its magnetism was exhausted in about twelve hours. When I mentioned 
to Mr. Hazard the proposed use of this magnetized paper, he assured 
me that it was a capital idea — that he had himself used it for a headache, 
and when he put it on the top of his head ' it turned all his hair back- 
ward.' I confess to dismay when I heard this; Caffray had told 
me that I must wear this paper on the top of my head under my 
hat ! But did it not behoove the Acting Chairman of the Seybert 
Commission to yield himself a willing victim to the cause of 
Psychical Research? Was to be, or not to be, a Medium so evenly 
balanced that the turning of a hair, or of a whole head of hair was 
to repel me? Perish the thought! That paper should be worn on 
the top of my head, under my hat, and that hat should be worn all 
day long. I would eat my breakfast with that hat on, eat my dinner 
with that hat on, and sleep with that hat on, and that magnetized 
paper should remain on the top of my head, let it turn my hair to 
all the points of the compass, if it would ! 

When I received the slates from Caffray he had no paper that was 
sufficiently magnetized just then ; he had some sheets that were about 
half done, and promised to send them to me as soon as the process was 
complete. 

In the meantime I began with the slates, sitting with them in total 
darkness from about a quarter past eight to nine o'clock every evening, 
with my hands resting on them lightly. 



126 

In three or four days the paper arrived. I explained to my family 
that hereafter they must not infer, from the wearing of my hat indoors 
and at meals, either that my wits had slipped, or that I had become 
converted to Judaism, but that my conduct was to be viewed by the 
light of the pure flame of research. In my secret soul I resolved that 
I would go at once, that very morning, to New York and plead with 
Caffray for some slight easing of my ordeal. The ' Spectre of the 
Threshold ' appeared to wear a silk hat, and I was afraid I never, never 
should pass him. 

The magnetized paper I handled with awe. It was, in outward 
semblance, ordinary white blotting paper, and, from some faint indica- 
tions of ink here and there, looked as though it might on occasion have 
served its original use ; but had I not paid a dollar a sheet for it ? It 
must be good. 

As I started for the train I put a piece on the top of my head, gave 
a fond, farewell look at my hair, and planted my hat firmly on my brows. 
I reached the train, and while looking for a seat caught sight of my 

friend, Miss W . Of course, I instantly bowed, and instantly there 

came fluttering down before her astonished and bewildered eyes a piece 
of blotting paper. I snatched it hastily, and in terror lest I had 
already broken the charm and forfeited all chance of Mediumship, 
retired to the rear of the car and furtively replaced the precious pad 
Decidedly I must see Caffray at once. 

Luckily, when I reached New York I found that eminent Medium 
at home, and, ' bonneted,' rehearsed to him my dread anticipations. 
He could not repress a grim laugh, and to my inexpressible relief gave 
me permission to wear the paper suspended round my neck next the 
skin. 

With those precious slates I sat every night, at the same hour, in 
darkness. I allowed nothing to interfere with this duty ; no call of 
family, of friends, of society, was heeded. At the end of three weeks 
I searched every molecule of the slate for the indication of a zig-zag 
line, but the surface was unsullied, and its black monotony returned 
stare for stare. 

Still hopeful and trustful I continued, day by day and week by 
week. The six weeks expired. Not a zig, nor a zag. Caffray was 
kept busy magnetizing paper. I renewed my stock and determined 
to push on to two months. I moved to the country and carried my 
slates thither, wrapped in double folds of black muslin. The days and 
weeks rolled on. Two months passed. The slates were as clean as 
when they came into my possession. I would go on to three months. 



127 

Does not a hen sit for three weeks ? Where a hen gives a week, shall 
not I give a month ? Is not a Medium worth more than a chicken ? 

' Courage ! ' cried Caffray, with each batch of paper. I went to the 
seashore and my slates went with me. Not a single evening did I 
break my rule. 

And so it went on. The three months became four ; became five ; 
became six ! 

And there an end, with absolutely virgin slates. 

I had used enough Blotting paper, it seemed to me, to absorb a 
spot on the sun. I dare not calculate the number of hours I had spent 
in darkness. 

Let Spiritualistic reproaches of investigators for lack of zeal and 
patience be heaped up hereafter till ' Ossa becomes a wart ; ' I care 
not ; my withers are un wrung. 

Punch gives a receipt for making ' Gooseberry Fool :' ' Carefully 
skin your gooseberries, extract the seeds and wash the pulp in three 
waters for six hours each. Having done this with the gooseberries, the 

Fool is perfect.' 

Horace Howard Furness. 



128 



SEALED LETTERS. 

Readers of the Spiritualistic literature of the present day cannot fail to 
have their attention frequently called to the remarkable power attrib- 
uted to certain Mediums, not only of reading the contents of envelopes 
which are securely gummed and sealed, but of returning to the ques- 
tions therein contained pertinent answers from friends in the other 
world. It is far from uncommon to hear of conversions to faith 
in Spiritualism wrought by these remarkable proofs of Spiritual power. 
At this hour, in many a loving home, responses to letters, thus sealed 
and answered through these Mediums, are treasured as tenderest, com- 
pletest proofs that love survives the grave and still encircles the living 
and the dead. 

Recognizing in this phase of Mediumship a department of Spiritual- 
ism capable of plain, matter-of-fact investigation, which could be con- 
ducted in writing and demanding no special powers of observation, the 
duty of investigation devolved mainly upon the Acting Chairman. 

There are only four of these special Mediums whose advertisements 
I have seen in Spiritual papers. He who has probably the widest 
reputation is Dr. James V. Mansfield, Boston. A second is Mr. R. 
W. Flint, New York City. A third is Mrs. Dr. Eleanor Martin, Co- 
lumbus, Ohio; and lastly, also of the same name, Mrs. Eliza A. 
Martin, of Oxford, Massachusetts. 

Through the Mediumship of the first, I have seen it stated that up- 
ward of a hundred thousand securely sealed letters have been answered ; 
and the names of men high in our business and financial world have 
been cited to me as of those who had received proofs of his power 
which could not be questioned, nor explained on any other ground 
than that of clairvoyance, or of Spirit communication. To him, there- 
fore, I concluded to apply first. 

The choice of a subject whereon to communicate with a denizen of 
the other world is not easy. To follow in the well-trodden path and 
ask after the welfare of departed friends would only end, I well knew, 
in turning on that stream of generalities, not glittering, but very 
dull, in which a large experience had taught me that disembodied 
Spirits chiefly delight when expatiating on the conditions of their 
changed existence. Furthermore, it was desirable that from the inves- 
tigation should be eliminated all elements of thought-transference or of 



129 

mind-reading. I must select a subject on which my own mind was a 
blank, and where the responses would have to be definite and unam- 
biguous, and withal quite within the scope of Spiritual knowledge. 

At last, as fulfilling, in all honesty and sincerity, the requisite con- 
ditions, a skull in my possession was fixed on. 

This skull is a relic, interesting from its dramatic associations. It 
has been used for fifty or sixty years as a 'property' at the Walnut 
Street Theatre, whenever ' Hamlet ' has been performed, and as ' Yor- 
ick's skull ' has been hatfdled in that play, from Edmund Kean down 
to Henry Irving and Edwin Booth. It is preserved with care, and 
mounted on a piece of polished black marble. Surely here is a skull 
whose experiences are singular above all ordinary skulls, and in whose 
career its original owner might be not unreasonably expected to 
cherish some interest or to have followed its fortunes with some 
little attention. Untold possibilities for the vindication of Spiritualis- 
tic truth and power hang around it, should there be an unwavering 
agreement by all Spiritual authorities, as to the circumstances, when 
alive, of its original owner. Surely, I concluded, the translated inhabi- 
tants of the 'summer-land' cannot have doffed the homespun honesty 
of mortal life; all will either confess ignorance with regard to this 
skull, or display their truthfulness by a substantial harmony in their 
reports, and thereby furnish an indisputable, irrefragable proof of the 
truth of Spiritualism. 

Sincere in this trust, I wrote on a small sheet of paper this question : 
" What was the name, age, sex, color or condition in life of the owner, 
when alive, of the skull here in my library? 28 February, 1885." 
This paper was put in an envelope, whereof the flap was then gummed 
to within a small distance of the point, under this point some sealing- 
wax was dropped, and enough was added above it to form a large, 
heavy, substantial impression. At the four corners additional seals, 
with different impressions, were placed. Thus gummed, and sealed 
with five seals, the envelope was enclosed to Dr. J. V. Mansfield, with 
a request that it be subjected to his Mediumistic power. 

In a few days the following was received : 

'Boston, March 2d, 1885. 
Dear Furness. — Your package came duly to hand most respect- 
fully say I have given the package two sittings and re'd from two 
different spirits (purported) answer one coroberating [sic] the other 
statement One from Robt Hair [sic] the other from Dr B. Rush for 
the two communicates my charge is 5.00 which if you will send me per 



130 

registered mail I will remit you per return mail Respfy J. V. Mans- 
field I judge from the com. it relates to a skeleton.' 

With this letter the sealed envelope was returned, apparently in ex- 
actly the same state in which it had been sent; the seals were 
intact, with the exception perhaps of a few trifling fractures, for which 
the transit to and from Boston, through the mail, would readily ac- 
count. Upon closer inspection, however, and upon turning the envel- 
ope so as to catch the light, I thought that a slight glazing of gum was 
discernible around the central seal, and from beneath its edge a 
minute bubble of mucilage protruded. The fee demanded was at 
once forwarded, and by return of mail the following ' communicates ' 
were received, written in pencil on long strips of common paper, and 
in two different hands : 

Dear Furness. — Yours of 28 Feby before me — as to this matter 
under consideration I have looked it over and over again Called my 
old friend Geo Combe and we are of the mind it is the skull of a 
female — Combe says he thinks it was that of a Colored woman — the 
age — about 40 to 44 the name of the one who inhabited it — it would 
not be possible for any spirit but the one who the skull belonged to 
If it was colored — Cornelia Winnie might know. Respfy Robt Haee 
Mch 2 '85.' 

In a larger, bolder hand on the second slip was the following : 

1 My dear Townsman — pardon what may seem an intrusion — but 
seeing your anxiety to get the Aage [sic] sex — col and name of a skull 
in your office and seeing the conclusion that Dr. Hare and Proffr 
Combe have arrived at- — I will say that I have looked the same over and 
fully concur in their conclusion save in the color of the one who once 
annimated [sic] that skull. Fowler Spurzeheim [sic] and Gall agree 
in saying that Hare and Combe have nothing to base an opinion upon, 
as to the color — yet in sex they agree Yours with Respect 

Benja Rush M.D. 

Exact age could not be determined. Mch 2 '85 ' 

These answers are certainly remarkable. The very words of the 
question inside the sealed envelope are here openly repeated, and al- 
though the six eminent, scientific ghosts, Hare, Combe, Fowler, Spurz- 
heim, Gall, and Rush do not agree with each other on all points, yet a 
slight divergence, or contrariety, in opinion is at times observable to the 
grosser eyes of flesh among doctors upon earth ; and then they were all 



131 

in accord over the sex of the skull, in which problem, having one chance 
out of only two, they could not go very far afield. Moreover, the very 
framing of the question as to sex might suggest female, and as to color 
might suggest black. 

But had not the envelope been opened? 

It occurred to me to cut the edges of the sealed envelope carefully, 
whereby I could examine the flap, on the inside. It was done. The 
paper of the envelope under three of the seals was torn, and deception 
stood revealed. The seals had been cut out, and restored to their 
position with mucilage. 

Although, in legal phrase, I might rest my case here, yet I was anx- 
ious so to seal an envelope that while its contents could not be extracted 
without the destruction of the envelope and a betrayal of any attempted 
fraud, yet that an answer to the question enclosed should be quite 
within the clairvoyant power, so called, of the Medium, if he really 
possessed any, and as to the existence whereof I was sincerely anxious 
to obtain some satisfactory proof. Animated with this desire, I pro- 
ceeded as follows : 

In the ' communicate ' from the Spirit of Dr. Hare, reference is made 
to Cornelia Winnie's possible knowledge of the information which I 
was seeking in regard to the skull. Could this have been a lure to 
tempt me to knock again at the Spiritual door of which Dr. Mansfield 
is the porter ? 

At any rate I accepted the suggestion. On a sheet of note-paper I 
wrote : 

' Can Cornelia Winnie, or any other Spirit (Dr. Hare refers me to 
the former), give me any particulars of the life or death of the colored 
woman who once animated this skull here in my Library. I am 
entirely ignorant myself on the subject.' 

This was folded, placed in an envelope, gummed and sealed pre- 
cisely as I had folded, gummed and sealed the previous letter. This 
I marked with ink on the outside 'No. 1.' 

On another sheet of similar note-paper I repeated word for word, 
and line for line, and dot for dot, the very same question. This paper 
was also folded and put into an envelope, but two or three stitches of 
red silk were then passed through the flap of the envelope and the 
enclosed paper, sewing the two securely together ; these stitches were 
made at the point of the flap, and again at each of the four corners. 
Over these stitches, and concealing them, seals of red sealing wax were 
affixed. Exteriorly the two envelopes were precisely alike. The 
stitched envelope wag marked on the outside 'No. 2.' As the contents 



132 

of both were identical, a clairvoyant Spirit that could answer No. 1 
could answer No. 2, but nothing less than superhuman power could 
extract the paper from No. 2 without so tearing the envelope as to 
betray an un-Spiritual origin. These two envelopes were enclosed to 
our Medium with the following note : 

'Dear Doctor Mansfield. The answers to my sealed letter were 
so satisfactory and so very curious that I should like to follow up the 
interesting subject, if I am not taxing your powers too heavily. I 
therefore enclose two more sealed envelopes, marked No. 1 and No. 2. 
If it be possible, I should like to have you sit with No. 1 first. If the 
Spirits respond, pray send me word and let me know how much I am 
indebted to you.' 

My object in asking the Medium to sit first with No. 1 was that, if 
he were fraudulent, finding the ease with which No. 1 could be opened, 
he would undertake the opening of No. 2 with such freedom and assur- 
ance that the envelope would be torn beyond the healing power of 
mucilage, and a confession of failure would have to follow. 

In a few days the envelopes were returned with the following brief 
note: 

'Dear Furness : Send you what came to your P K the 2d gave no 
response my terms are $3 for each trial — warrant nothing. 

Respectfully, 
J. V. M.' 

The Spiritual communication enclosed reads as follows : 
' I Bress de Lord for deh one mor to talk to de people of my ole 
home I been thar lots o tim since I com here — but o Lord de Massy — 
they no see Winne cos she be ded and she jus no ded at tall — now — as 
to dot Col gal — Hed I could not say — sure — but I think it Dinah 
Melish — she who lov de Lord too. I think it seem Dina top not. Will 
see Dina som time and then i ask her — do you no Minister Du Cachet 
well he here — and want the [there here follows in the original a rude 
drawing of a decanter and wine glass. In this scandalous allusion 
there is no trace, it will be observed, of phonetic spelling in the proper 
name] just de same. I Bress de Lor I don't want it. 
March 13, '85. Cornelia Winnie/ 

An examination of the envelope marked No. 1, by cutting it open 
at the edges, revealed the same story of fraud : three of the seals had 
been cut out, and replaced. 

An examination of No. 2, in the same way, readily disclosed the 



133 

reason why the Spirits had failed to answer, although the question 
assuredly presented no greater difficulties than in No. 1. An attempt 
had been made to start two of the seals, but meeting with unexpected 
resistance in the silk stitches, and finding that further effort would end 
in tearing the envelope in a very palpable and mundane fashion, the 
Spirits had grown disheartened and taciturn. 

We shall meet this Medium again, but for the present we will leave 
him, after pausing for a minute over his business card, which, after 
stating his terms in prosaic dollars and cents, thus apostrophizes bis 
clientele : 

" From the bright stars, 
And viewless air 

Sweet Spirit, if thy home be there, 
Answer me. — Answer me." 

Happily my experience enables me to remove all doubt as to the 
locality of the Spirit's ' home,' and to state with positiveness its exact 
location. But like the German philologist's example of the remarkable 
incongruity in English between spelling and pronunciation, that what was 
written ' Boz ' was pronounced ' Charles Dickens,' so I cheerfully add 
to this list of incongruities that what is written 'bright stars' is pro- 
nounced 'Boston,' and 'viewless air' is pronounced ' Dartmouth Street.' 

I next turned my attention to Mr. R. W. Flint in New York. From 
him I received the following circular in answer to my inquiries : 

"Dear 

I am controlled by one spirit, purporting to be my guide who is the scribe for 
the spirits, delivering (in his own hand-writing) what is dictated to him by the 
spirit of communicating. 

I am in a normal (not trance) state, but unconscious of the composition. 

My hand is moved to write from right to left (backwards), independent of my 
will. 

By holding the written side up to the light, the answer can be read. 

The spirit-letters should be securely sealed, addressed to the spirit, giving his 
or her name in full, and signed by the writer's name in full ; but no address on 
the envelope. 

When left open they cannot be answered, my agency being efficient only when 
my mind is passive, and blank to both questions and answers. 

Put your questions clearly, directly, briefly. The mixed and many kinds defeat 
the object of the investigator. 

I have my photograph for sale, exhibiting my Spirit Guide's hand and arm, or 
form of control ; taken while answering a sealed letter." 



134 

[The terms here follow, with honorable notification that the money 
is returned in all cases when the letters are not answered.] 

It will be noted that this Medium's 'Spirit-guide' requires the names 
in full of both Spirit and writer ; I was, therefore, forced to select a 
Spirit who knew not only me and my ways, but also the high value 
that is placed on that skull. Mindful that eminent Spiritual authority 
had pronounced this skull to be that of a colored woman, I decided, 

after deliberation, to address the Spirit of "W H , a colored 

servant, who had lived over forty years in one family a faithful, blame- 
less life, and who, when he died, carried with him the respect and 
regards of the entire household, and whose widow and daughters still 
survive in honest, humble life, and to whose ears this apparent freedom 
with their husband's and father's name will never reach. Accordingly, 
the following note was addressed to the Spirit world: 

' Dear W H . Can you tell me anything about the owner, 

when alive, of the skull here in the Library? You remember how 
anxious I have always been to have my ignorance on this score 

enlightened. Have you any message to send to your wife, M 

F ? Are you happy now? Your old friend, Horace Howard 

Furness.' 

This letter was put in an envelope, which was gummed and sealed 
with five simple seals, without the impenetrable stitches of silk, and 
enclosed with the fee to Mr. Flint. It was received again in a few 
days with this note: — 'Dear Sir — I gave your sealed Spirit-letter three 
sittings and regret to state that I have been unable to get an answer. 
My Guide at each sitting wrote and said, the Spirit called upon is not 
present to dictate an answer.' The fee was also returned. 

An examination of the envelope by cutting at the edges, as in the 
previous experiment, showed that the 'Spirit arm' of the Guide of Mr. 
Flint had not the nerve of Dr. Mansfield. I was at a loss to know why 
it stopped; it was going along in the removal of the seals very nicely; 
to be sure the paper was tearing perilously near where the rent could 
be detected from the outside, but with only a little more of Dr. Mans- 
field's pluck, and the Spirit of W H would have been pres- 
ent, and the fee pocketed. However, from whatever cause, whether 
fright or repentance, the 'flighty purpose was o'ertook,' and the 
Medium supposed that a little mucilage would ' clear him of the deed.' 

Next I turned to Mrs. Eleanor Martin, in Columbus, Ohio. Without 
writing a fresh letter, I sent her the same letter to W H , 



135 

which had been returned to me from Mr. Flint, and the envelope was 
sealed in the simple easy way with five seals, but no silk stitches. 
To this came the following response : 



'Columbus, Ohio, March 25th, '85. 

* * * Please find enclosed your sealed letter, also the messages, and 
my terms. I learn from the messages, your letter was written upon 
the Spiritual topic. My terms being $1.00. But in your case I find 
the messages are at a greater length than many and according to 
request of the Spirit " Belle " I paint the little white rose as her nature. 
Most truly, Eleanor Martin. 

First message, written by one of my Guides in Spirit for the follow- 
ing persons: 

Message. 

In earth life I was tall and fair 

With jet black eyes and golden hair 
Eyes that sparkled with mirth and song 

And whose hair in curls one yard long. 

Ah but many sad years ago 

My life was burdened with woe 
But the seens [sic] through which I passed 

Are now with gladness overcast. 

I was born in your earth to await 

The coming of a cruel fate 
Yes, I a true and loving wife 

But mine was a sad darkened life. 

Oh a life which seemed to last 

To me the future, as the past, 
And as the lone hours drifted by 

My only prayer, Oh could I die. 

Cruel is the assassins hand 

Yet so many are in your land 
Day by day as a fearful flood 

Hearts have flowed in tears of blood. 

My own the pain, I could not tell 

But I can say I know full well 
My soul ne'er found sweet peace one day 

And with earth I could no longer stay. 



136 

My form was sold to doctors three 
So you have all that's left of me 

I come to greet you in white mull 
You that prizes my lonely skull. 

I can cause you many bright hours 
Strew your path in purest flowers 

For your kindness tendered me 
I will always guard and guide thee. 

You may call me your Sister Belle 
My other name I ne'er can tell 

They tell me it is for the best 
To let earth's troubles be at rest. 

Tis /who have often raped [sic'] 
In your quiet room have taped [sic] 

And have impressed on your mind 
Many inquiries of me so kind. 

By Blind Harry for a beautiful lady who gives the name Belle. 

Second Message. 

To my Dear friend Horace 

Horace you wonder if all is well 

Yes, I'm more happy than I can tell 
For sorrow and trouble does not last 

But like a sweet dream goes glidiDg past 
In a smooth path of eternal day 

Where dawns for each a perpetual May. 

Dear M tell her, and family too 

That I am ever to them most true 

And I daily guide her tender feet 
Where'er she goes upon the street 

That she has my love forever more 
I understand her more than before. 

Oh ! ye3 this bright and eternal space 
Fills each true soul with love and grace 

There is nothing like earth's crimes so vile 
No frown wreathes the face but a sweet smile 

And which glides along, to one and all 
Greeting old, and young, gay, and small. 

The bright spirit world is everywhere 
And to each is appointed some care 

To guide earth's children on their way 
Amid the poor, as well as the gay 

We dwell in fields of labor and love 

Guiding thousands in true relms [sic] above. 



137 

Many things I would love to rehearse 
Which would be written for me in verse 

But so many are here to await 
Their joyous messages to relate 

Many friends with me are ever near 
To guide our brother Horace dear. — 

By Blind Harry. 

For a gentleman who gives his name W H .' 

The sealed envelope Scarcely needed to be opened at the back for 
interior inspection; its exterior bore ample and all-sufficing evidence 
that the seals had been broken, and the gum softened; the fingers 
which had again pressed down the gummed edge were not as unsullied 
as 'Sister Belle's' white rose. 

This communication from the Spirit world gave me pause. Here 
was food for reflection. It settled many points in dispute among the 
scientific Ghosts. First: they were all right on the question of sex; 
but Hare, Combe and Cornelia "Winnie were wrong as to color. Sister 
Belle is not a negress, her hair is not black and in kinks, it is golden, 
and its curls are three feet in length, moreover, a white rose is her 
emblem. And what a sad domestic tragedy have I not here unearthed. 
In reading between the lines of these verses we learn that what dark- 
ened the life of this true and loving woman was a mercenary husband, 
and that this husband survived her, and in his unhallowed greed sold 
her body, and this, too, at so exorbitant a price, that it required the 
united purses of three doctors to induce him to close the bargain. 

Secondly : by the message from W H , that most sedate and 

respectful of all respectful colored servants, the moralist may learn 
anew the truth that Death is a leveller of all distinctions. Not even 
when the Emperor Charlemagne appeared at a Materializing Seance 
in a dress-coat and standing collar, and apologetically remarked that 
1 Kings leave their ermine, sir, at the door of the tomb,' not even then 

was this great truth driven so profoundly home as when W H 

greeted me by my Christian name, and hailed me 'brother.' 

Need it be added that I gratefully remitted to Medium Number 
Three a double fee, and do yet consider myself many times her 
debtor? Her gratitude to me found expression in another outburst of 
song. 

Had the identity of the original owner of the skull been my sole 
object, I might well have rested content. I had found the owner, and 
she had claimed her own. She was ' Sister Belle,' and confessed to 



138 

that rare combination of golden hair with black eyes, like Lady Pene- 
lope Rich, Sir Philip Sydney's first love. But my duty as a member 
of this Commission compelled me to complete my investigations, and 
make application to the fourth and last Medium for answering Sealed 
Letters. 

As I have stated, this Medium is also a woman, and resides in Mas- 
sachusetts. Her circular directs the sealed letters to be ' well sealed 
or stitched, so that they may not be opened until returned.' 

To this Medium, Mrs. Eliza A. Martin, Oxford, Mass., was sent the 

same letter to W H that had been sent to her predecessor, of 

the same name, in Columbus, and it was put in an envelope, merely 
gummed and sealed, without the silk stitches. 

Within a few days I received the following note, enclosing my sealed 

envelope: ' A message awaits your order from W H . Please 

state if you recognize Mrs. M. F. H. — Several friends came and that 
name was mentioned. * * * There are some words in an unknown 
tongue.' 

The minute that I looked at the returned envelope, I felt like stand- 
ing uncovered, as in the presence of genius, a genius before which 
Mediums One, Two and Three paled. Nothing could excel the un- 
sullied virginity of the seals, or of the gummed spaces between them. 
I felt that I must proceed with the utmost caution. With a very 
sharp penknife I then began to cut the edge of the envelope at 
one end. Scarcely had the knife been drawn very slowly more than 
the half of an inch before it became manifest that the edge of the 
envelope presented more resistance than the simple fold of paper would 
make. I stopped and examined the severed edges. Very delicate but 
very distinct traces were visible of a thin mucilage, perhaps of rice- 
water or of diluted gum-tragacanth. How exquisite and how light are 
the touches of ethereal, Spiritual fingers ! After all the trouble with 
my seals, when, emulating Dr. Watt's Busy Bee, ' so neat I spread my 
wax,' it was beginning to dawn upon me that clairvoyant eyes, quite 
as much as our own, require Heaven's broad sunshine on black ink 
and white paper. 

The transmission of the fee brought in a few days the following : 



' Dictated by the Spirit of W H . 

To H. H. Furness. I found things very different here from what I 
expected. I think that is almost the universal experience. The half 
has not been told, nor can it ever be, for no language known to human- 
ity can convey any definite knowledge of the mysteries of the Spiritual 
Life. 



139 

I remain the same toward you and all my earthly friends. Am 
with you frequently. Was present in your Library with you one day 

recently. I send my love to M F and to all others who knew 

me in earth-life. 

A friend whom we both know and respect will pass over to this side 
before long. 

Will come to you again.' 

I cannot but think that all will agree in estimating this communica- 
tion, with its adroit generalization, and in its general tone as superior 
to any thus far received* On another sheet of paper was written : 

' There is a Spirit Friend present, who gives the name of Marie St. 
Clair. Earth-life had not much pleasure for her, and a course of 
dissapation [sic] and sin resulted in an untimely death. Born of 
French parentage, and inheriting some of the peculiar characteristics 
of that people might perhaps furnish some excuse. This Spirit says 
furthermore, you have something which once belonged to her in your 
possession. 

" Behold this ruin, 'tis a skull 
Once of etherial spirit full — " 
" Par quel ordre du Ciel, que je ne puis compendre 
Vous dis-je plus que je ne dois ?" 

Here is evidently ' a spirit of no common rate,' of whom we might 
well desire further acquaintance, albeit at the cost of losing golden- 
haired, black-eyed Sister Belle. But why should we talk of ' loss ?' If, 
as Banquo says, ' there's husbandry in Heaven,' why should we not in 
the ' Summer-land ' find one and the same skull, with frugal economy, 
given to two owners ? 

Desirous of submitting the mother-wit of this Medium to the test of 
stitched envelopes, I wrote the following : — ' Is Marie St. Clair pleased 
in having her skull carefully treasured here in my Library ? Does it 
gratify her, as a Spirit, that it is mounted on black marble ? Does she 
ever hover over it ?' 

This was placed in an envelope, gummed, and sealed with five seals 
in the ordinary, easy-going way, and marked No. 1. 

The very same questions were repeated on another piece of paper and 
put in an envelope, which was stitched securely with silk, the stitches 
passing through both the envelope and the paper, and carefully con- 
cealed under the sealing wax. This was marked No. 2, and in the 
note accompanying these two envelopes, the Medium was requested to 



140 

sit with No. 1 first. The Test was the same as that to which Dr. 
Mansfield had been subjected, and to which he had succumbed. 

The mail soon returned both envelopes, with this note : — ' The 
reply comes to us in the affirmative to both envelopes. There is quite 
a communication for you from same Spirit Friend.' 

A close examination of the edges of the envelopes soon revealed the 
edge at which they had been opened and closed again. That edge has 
been preserved intact for future verification, if required, and the envel- 
opes were opened by cutting the other edges. The seals had not been 
removed ; as, in fact, there was no need of removing them. The paper 
containing the questions had not been extracted from No. 2 ; it still re- 
mained firmly stitched to the front of the envelope. Yet the Medium 
had evidently read it. Her words are ' the reply comes in the affirm- 
ative to both envelopes,' which is a good, fair answer. I was puzzled, it 
must be confessed. Suddenly it occurred to me to try how far one 
could look into the contents of the paper, supposing the end of the en- 
velope to be open. I tried it, and lo ! enough can be easily read to 
make out that No. 2 is a repetition of No. 1. The needle had missed 
taking up all the folds of the paper ! 

The communication from Marie St. Clair, which accompanied these 
envelopes, runs thus: — 'To H. H. Furness. Your kindly nature has 
often drawn the Spirit of Marie to your side. I consider myself in- 
debted to you for certain acts which you will understand. Not that 
the poor inanimate thing which you have so kindly treated, is of itself 
of much account, but your kindness has often drawn me to your side 
in moments when you little dreamed I were near. Had I met in ma- 
terial existence one like yourself my past might have been far differ- 
ent. In this beautiful life, the sources and ' courses of all earthly 
misfortunes and sins appear to us like a figure seen in a dream. The 
lowest plane of Spiritual life is as much superior to earthly exist- 
ence as sunlight is superior to starlight. From Marie St. Clair. 
Please inform Mrs. Martin why you so carefully preserved the skull, 
and where you obtained it, and all you know about it, and oblige 
yours truly, E. A. Martin. There is an acrostic upon your name 
waiting for you here from Marie.' 

If the fair and frail Marie appears somewhat cautious in direct 
allusions to her skull, and to her ' earth-life,' it is certainly to her credit 
that she seems to have retained no taint of mercenary greed. She 
made no demand or reference to a fee, and a second letter had to be 
sent to her Medium to learn the amount of my debt. This is her 
reply: — 'Your kind favour came duly to me, and as your message 



141 

to your Spirit Friend was delivered previously, that is, as soon as it 
was written, I had no further effort to make than to convey the follow- 
ing to you : 

' Amants, heureux amants, voulez-vous voyager ! Que ce soit aux 
rives prochaines. 

Patience, je n'en ai pas quand je suis si pres et si loin de vous. 

Ah ! tout ce qu'il y a dan3 le coeur de crainte, de douleur, de des- 
espoir, j'ai tout devine; tout souffert, je puis tout exprimer maintenant 
surtout la ioie. Adieu! Marie St. Clair.' 

Here end my investigations into the power of Spirits to answer sealed 
questions. 

In every instance the envelopes had been opened and reclosed ; it is 
therefore scarcely necessary to add that every instance has borne the 
stamp of Fraud. 

There is yet one other dark chapter, perhaps the darkest of all, which 
my duty compelled me to read. 

I began with Dr. Mansfield, in Boston; let me end with him there. 

In addition to the answering of sealed letters sent to him by mail, 
this Medium exercises his Mediumistic powers on questions propounded 
to him, or rather to the Spirits through him, at his own home. 

His method of work, as described by several highly intelligent ob- 
servers, is somewhat as follows : — There are two tables in the room of 
seance, at one of which sits the Medium, at the other the visitor. The 
visitor at his table writes his question in pencil at the top of a long 
slip of paper, and, after folding over several times the portion of the 
slip on which his question is written, gums it down with mucilage and 
hands it to the Medium, who thereupon places on the folded and gum- 
med portion his left hand, and in a few minutes with his right 
hand writes down answers to the concealed questions; these answers 
are marvels of pertinency, and prove beyond a cavil the Clairvoyant 
or Spiritual powers of the Medium. So remarkable are the results of 
this phase of Mediumship, that through them and through the high 
standing and intelligence of those who believe in him, this particular 
Medium is a tower of Spiritualistic strength. Examine my informants 
as narrowly as possible, there appeared to be no possibility of fraud. 
The impression had gradually deepened in my mind that here is an in- 
stance of genuine Spiritual power. But the fraudulent character of 
his dealings with the sealed letters made me fear that falsus in uno, 
falsus in omnibus. 



142 

On the 14th of May, 1885, I called on Dr. Mansfield at his house, 
No. 28 Dartmouth Street, and was ushered into the second story front 
room — a bedroom. There were, I think, three front windows looking 
on the street; at the farthest was the Medium's table, so placed side- 
ways to the window, and close to it, that the full light fell on the Me- 
dium's left hand, as he sat at it, and faced the middle of the room. In 
front of the Medium, as he sat at the table with his back to the wall, 
were the usual writing materials, lead pencils and mucilage bottle, and 
beyond them, on the edge of the table farthest from the Medium, and 
between him and the rest of the room, was a row of books, octavos, 
etc., extending the whole length of the table and terminating in a tin 
box, like a deed box, with pamphlets on it. When the Medium sits at 
his table, this row of books is between him and his visitor. The table 
for the visitor is a small one, near one of the other windows and six or 
seven feet from the Medium. On this table were a number of strips of 
paper and a pencil. 

The Medium, who did not ask my name, bade me take a seat at 
the small table and write my question on one of the strips of paper, and 
then to fold down the paper two or three times. 

I sat down and wrote, " Has Marie St. Clair met Sister Belle in the 
other world?" I then folded that portion of the strip of paper down 
three times, and told the Medium that it was ready for the mucilage ; 
he came over from his table at once with a brush of mucilage, and 
spread it abundantly under the last fold. Then, taking the strip be- 
tween his thumb and forefinger, he walked with it back to his table, 
keeping it in my sight all the time. As soon as he took his seat and 
laid the strip on his table before him, I rose and approached his table, 
so as to keep my paper still in sight ; the row of books entirely intercepted 
my view of it. The Medium instantly motioned to me to return to my 
seat, and, I think, told me to do so. I obeyed, and as I did so could 
not repress a profound sigh. Why had no one ever told me of that 
row of books? The Medium did not sit in statue-like repose, but moved 
his body much, and his arms frequently; his hands I could not see, 
hidden as they were, behind the row of books. After a minute or two 
the Medium looked up and said, ' I don't know whether I can get any 
communication from this Spirit,' a remark which a long experience 
with Slate- Writing Mediums has taught me to regard as a highly 
favorable omen, and as an indication that they have read the question 
and are now about to begin the little game, in which I always take 
much interest, of experiencing great difficulty in obtaining the 'rap- 
port,' as they term it. Dr. Mansfield frowned, shook his head and as- 



143 

eumed an air of great doubt and perplexity. I was certain that there 
would be now an ostentatious display of the strip of paper, and sure 
enough, in a minute more the Medium, strip in hand, came over to my 
table, and shook his head ominously. He placed his left hand on the 
portion of the strip containing my question, and began tapping on it 
with his forefinger. 'Pray, tell me,' I said, 'is that motion of your 
forefinger voluntary or involuntary?' 'It's my telegraph to 'em,' he 
replied, 'getting 'em to come.' 'I don't want to weary you,' I rejoined, 
'but if that tapping will bring them, do keep it up! I cannot tell you 
how anxious I am to hear from this Spirit.' He paused, and then 
made some marks, like cabalistic signs, which are still to be seen on the 
paper. Then the tapping was resumed. Then more cabalistic signs 
were made. At last he said, 'Put your left foot against mine, and your 
left knee against mine, and hook your forefinger into mine, and pull 
hard.' I did so. 'Stop,' he cried, 'is it Maria?' 'Yes,' I replied, 
'that's it, she is called 'Marie.' It's Marie!' 'I have to go by the 
sound,' he rejoined. We then pulled forefingers again. 'Stop,' he 
cried, 'is there a 'Saint' about it?' 'Yes,' I answered, 'St. is the first 
part of the next name! I have so longed to have her come to me.' 
Dr. Mansfield arose, gathered up the strip and returned to his table. I 
could go now unopposed and stand by him while he wrote the follow- 
ing : ' I am with you my dear Bro but too xcited to speak for a moment 
have patience brother and I will do the best I can do to control. Your 
sister Marie St. Clair.' 

The change in kinship, and its novelty, staggered me somewhat; 
clearly they manage things differently in the ' Summer-land.' However, 
I mastered my emotion. 'And now,' I said, 'for the great question,' 
and was going hastily to my table to write it. 'Stop,' said the Medium, 
1 you're too excited to ask that question now. Put some other questions 
first. Then when you are calmer put the important question.' (A 
clever stroke ! He did not know enough of me or of Marie to answer 
anything definitely — a few intermediate questions might furnish him 
with many a clue.) 'But, my dear sir,' I cried, 'what can I ask 
about ? I have but one thought in my mind ; that engulfs all others. 
If I don't ask that, I shall have to ask Marie if she minds this pouring 
rain, or some twaddle about the weather.' 'Well, well, you'd better 
ask it then, and get it off your mind, and we'll see how far Marie can 
answer it.' (Here let me recall that stanza in Sister Belle's communi- 
cation wherein she says: 

" My form was sold to doctors three 
And you have all that's left of me," etc.) 



144 

I sat down at my table and wrote: 'Is it really true that Sister 
Belle's body was sold to three doctors?' I folded it down, carried it 
to the Medium's table, watched him gum it, and still remained stand- 
ing at his table, but he immediately and peremptorily waved me to my 
seat. Again were his hands and my strip of paper, with its freshly 
gummed fold, completely hidden from sight, behind the row of books. 
Again the Medium's arms moved. He turned to the window and 
hastily pulled down the shade. This puzzled me. There was no sun- 
shine to be excluded, it was raining fast outside, the day was unusually 
dark, and he needed all the light he could get. I turned and looked 
out of my window, and there in the house just across the narrow 
street, at a window on a level with ours, and commanding a full view 
of the Medium's table, sat a woman sewing, with another, I think, 
standing by her. ' Bravo ! ' I thought, ' are not the four Cardinal vir- 
tues, Temperance, Justice, Prudence and Fortitude?' and then resumed 
my watch inside. Dr. Mansfield finished writing, and then held up the 
slip as though for a final revision before handing it to me. A tooth- 
pick which he had in his mouth worked energetically from side to side, 
and he gravely shook his head as in perplexity. 'I don't like this,' he 
ejaculated at last, 'I don't want to give it to you. There'll be trouble 
here. It's very serious. Better let me tear it up.' ' Let me see it,' I 
cried, ' I promise you I'll be calm,' and I took the strip from his fingers 
and read : 

1 Dear Brother — I fear such was the case — but — I could not say who 
— I have consulted Dr. Hare — and the far famed Benja Rush, and 
they agree that the body is not in the earth — I fear darling Belle's 
body — is in process of being — wired. Marie St. Clair.' 

The last word was not, I thought, quite legible, so I appealed to the 
Medium, and when he solemnly said ' wired,' the utterance with which I 
greeted it he probably thought was a groan, and, indeed, from the bor- 
derland of laughter, I did try to push it over into the land of tears, as 
hard as I could. 

My third question immediately followed : " Can you give me any 
information as to where even a portion of the body is ? " Again I was 
Waved to my seat, again my strip of paper and the hands were con- 
cealed, again the arms were nervously moved. This answer I awaited 
with not a little anxiety. Surely, surely, Marie St. Clair and Sister 
Belle would remember that their joint skull was in my library. 
They had told me so, only a few weeks before, and as that skull was 
known to be fifty or sixty years old, and their united memory of it had 



145 

lasted throughout those long years, surely that memory would not 
desert them now. And Dr. ' Benja ' Rush, who had recently greeted 
me as ' townsman,' he was present and surely he would come to the 
rescue of Spiritualism, and gladly seize the chance to settle the question 
which he had once discussed with Combe, and Gall, and Spurzheim by 
bringing forward the frail Marie and the golden-haired, black-eyed 
Belle as tenants in common (and uncommon) of the same skull. 
Moreover, I thought, are there not to be found in Anatomical Museums 
skeletons of infants with one body and two heads? Why may not this 
have been an instance of one head and two bodies ? To be sure, one 
of the bodies lived in Ohio and the other in Massachusetts, but then 
when we have once started on a journey through the marvels of Spirit- 
ualism, as portrayed by these four Mediums, what does such a trifle as 
this amount to ? I had, I reflected, in all seriousness, taken no single 
step in the investigation of these Mediums that was not fully authorized 
by the explicit statements received from the Mediums themselves. I 
had accepted as truth what they told me was truth. If Spiritualism is 
hereby wounded, it is wounded in the house of its own disciples. 

At last my answer came : ' I am not allowed to divulge what I think 
— much less what I know — it would be productive of more harm than 
good — let them have it — it is but earth at best — they have not got our 
precious Belle — she is safe in the Haven of Eternal repose — I would 
not make any noise about it — but let it pass — as a discovery of it 
would give you pain rather than otherwise — Belle says let it pass — the 
triune that have it bought it without knowing whose it was, and such 
care as little as they know. 

Marie St. Clair.' 

I felt that it was time that a conclusion should be put to this farce, 
so humiliating in the thought that honest, unsuspicious, gentle men and 
gentle women are daily deceived by it. Nevertheless, I wished to bring 
the 'wheel full circle' to this Medium's Spiritual communications 
of aforetime. I recalled that Cornelia Winnie's spirit had said that 
she thought the skull was Dina Melish's 'top not.' My fourth, and 
last, question therefore ran : ' Do you think that by any chance Dina 
Melish would know?' To which the answer came: "Well Brother, 
as to that She may know more than She may be willing to divulge 
— you see, Brother, it places Dinah in a very unpleasant position, 
*. e., should it be noised abroad that she was in the secret. I do 
not by any means censure Dinah for what she may know, if know she 
does. You could xamine Dinah on that point — carefully, not allowing 

10 



146 

her to suspect your object in so doing. You might and might not 
elicit some light on the matter. 

Marie St. Clair.' 
14 May, '85. 

After I had handed this last question to Dr. Mansfield a slight 
incident enabled me, to my own satisfaction, to note the exact instant 
when he read my question (he would say, ' clairvoyantly ') behind his 
row of books. He once lifted his eyes to mine, and met them full for 
an instant in a piercing look. I do not think he suspected that I was 
his former correspondent (I would have told him willingly who I was 
if he had ever asked me), but the name ' Dina Melish ' seemed to come 
back to his memory, as one that he had heard but could not localize. 
Of course I knew that he had just read my question. 

I told him that these were all the questions I desired to ask him. 
He exhorted me to be calm, and told me a cheerful story of a young 
girl's having been recently buried alive, of which, I infer, the moral 
was, that she would have found it more comfortable all round to have 
been sold to the doctors. I paid him his fee and left. 

In conclusion, let me add that we have by no means exhausted the 
lessons which Spiritualism, in the hands of some of its votaries, can 
teach us. To our purblind vision the joint ownership of one skull by 
two different persons presents a physiological problem more or less 
difficult of solution. But all difficulty vanishes as soon as 'the river is 
crossed.' I derived no little comfort and much light from a Material- 
izing Seance which I attended shortly afterwards in Boston, where 
both Marie St. Clair and Sister Belle appeared together, at the same 
time, and greeted me with affectionate warmth. To my inexpressi- 
ble relief they were each well provided with skulls. They were 
more mature and matronly, I confess, than my ardent fancy had 
painted them, and Sister Belle's 'golden curls one yard long' were 
changed to very straight black hair; the golden hue which Sister Belle 
had herself ascribed to them must have been due to the light in which 
she saw them, 'the light that never was on sea or land.' 

I was pleased to find that Marie's English was excellent, without a 
trace of foreign accent. But this, and the matronly appearance, I 
learned subsequently were presumably due to the age, shape and nativity 
of the Medium through whom she materialized. For when Marie 
afterwards appeared to me, as she did many times at another Medium's 
seances, her appearance was quite youthful, with clustering brown 
curls low down on her forehead, which when I once attempted to stroke 



147 

I found to be full of sharp pins ; and to my expressions of gratitude 
that she should so kindly appear to me, she lisped in broken English : 
' I am viz you olvays.' The present of an amber necklace, with the 
name 'Marie' engraved on the silver clasp, obtained for me from her 
the written expression of her pleasure that I had carefully preserved 
what I assured her was ' the last thing on her neck before she passed 
over.' Need I say that this document, in Marie's own handwriting, 
invests the skull with even added interest? 

Horace Howard Furness. 



148 



MATERIALIZATION. 

I think it would be difficult to find a psychological study more in- 
teresting than that which is afforded by a Materializing seance. I have 
never attended one that did not yield abundant food for reflection, and 
present one problem, at least, too deep for any solution I can devise. 
Although, perhaps, our first experience in such seances makes the 
deepest impression, yet the novelty never wears off, nor can custom 
stale its variety. The audiences are never wholly the same, and every 
Medium has her own peculiar method. 

In the cities where the Mediums reside, and where they hold their 
seances on regular days throughout the winter, the audiences are by no 
means composed only of those who go out of idle curiosity; these form 
but a small segment of the 'circle,' the majority are regular attendants, 
mostly those whose lives have been clouded by sorrow, and who go 
thither as to a church or sanctuary, and so serious and earnest is their 
deportment that I cannot imagine any temptation to open levity. 
This unaffectedly religious character of these seances cannot fail, I 
think, to strike even the most indifferent. The careful arrangement of 
the visitors who are to compose what is termed the ' circle ;' the nice 
balancing of positive natures with negative natures, wherein the Medium 
is guided by her delicate spiritual insight ; the quiet hush ; the whis- 
pered conversation; the darkened room; the darker drapery of the 
mysterious Cabinet, with its untold possibilities ; the subdued chords 
of the dim melodeon; the soothing tones of familiar hymns, in which 
all voices join; the words full of assurance of a deathless life, of im- 
mortal love, of reunion with earthly idols, not lost, but gone before only 
a very little distance, and now present and impatient for the Medium's 
trance to enable them to return radiant with love and joy — all these 
conspire to kindle emotions deeply religious in hearts that are break- 
ing under blows of bereavement, and of such, as I have said, the 
majority of the audiences are composed. Every effort is made by 
the Mediums to heighten the effect. Before entering the Cabinet to 
undergo her mysterious trance, the Medium generally makes a short 
address, reminding the circle that this is a solemn hour, that here is 
the forecourt of the world beyond, thronged with living Spirits, eager 
to return, bearing visible, tangible assurance of immortality and of 
enduring love, and that the mysterious agency, whereby they return, 



149 

is greatly aided by a sympathetic harmony in the circle, and so forth. 
The Medium then enters the Cabinet ; the curtains close ; the light is 
lowered ; the organ sounds some solemn chords, gliding into the hymn, 
' Nearer, my God, to Thee,' which all join in singing. At its close there 
is a hush of anticipation ; and that nature must be unimpressionable 
indeed, that is not stirred when the dark, heavy folds of the curtains of 
the Cabinet are discerned to be tremulously moving ; and, as they gently 
part, disclose a figure veiled from head to foot in robes of white. 

If the return of the heavenly visitant would but end here, I think 
the impression would b« deeper and more abiding. The filmy, vague 
outline of the white figure thoroughly harmonizes with all estab- 
lished, orthodox notions of ghosts, and if this were all of the apparition 
vouchsafed to us, we might, perhaps, have a harder problem to deal 
with than when the Spirit actually emerges from the Cabinet with out- 
stretched arms of greeting. A substantial, warm, breathing, flesh and 
blood ghost, whose foot-falls jar the floor, is slightly heterodox and 
taxes our credulity ; if hereunto be added an unmistakable likeness to 
the Medium in form and feature, many traces, I am afraid, of the 
supernatural and spiritual vanish. 

Mindful of our endeavour as a Commission, to have as many observ- 
ers as possible in cases demanding close observation, I never attended 
a Materializing seance as a member of this Commission. Whenever I 
happened to be personally known (and my ear-trumpet soon makes 
me a marked man), that official capacity was unavoidably imputed to 
me, but I never announced it nor claimed it. I was present merely 
as an observer on my own account, with the intention of making 
arrangements, if practicable, for seances with the rest of the Commis- 
sion, if what I saw seemed to me sufficiently remarkable to justify the 
expense, which experience, with other Mediums in other lines, had 
taught me would be very considerable. I therefore took no notes, and 
could at this late day only after much difficulty furnish dates. Where- 
fore all that I propose in this Memorandum is to give my own private 
conclusion, which is worth no more than the conclusion of any other 
private individual, and to mention the test to which I subjected all the 
Spirits whom I had the pleasure of specially ' interviewing ' ; as 
this test can be applied by any one, at any time, at any seance, it par- 
takes of the nature of a general truth, which does not need the support 
of dates, or names, or places to uphold it. I suppose I have attended 
between twenty and thirty Materializing seances. 



150 

I do not hesitate to acknowledge that I have been throughout sin- 
cerely and extremely anxious to become converted to Spiritualism. In 
whatever direction my judgment is warped, it is warped in favor of 
that belief. I cannot conceive of the texture of that mind which would 
not welcome such an indisputable proof of immortality as Spiritualism 
professes to hold out. 

In general, then, let me say at once and emphatically that I have never 
seen anything which, in the smallest degree, has led me to suppose that a 
Spirit can be, as it is termed, materialized. It is superfluous to add that 
I never recognized a materiaKzed Spirit ; in only two instances have any 
Spirits professed to be members of my family, and in one of those two 
instances, as it happened, that member was alive and in robust health, 
and in the other a Spirit claimed a fictitious relationship, that of niece. 

Of course this assertion applies only to those Spirits who materialized 
especially for me. I do not pretend to answer for Spirits who came to 
other people. All that I am quite sure of is that all the Spirits who 
singled me out from the circle, and emerged from the Cabinet for my 
benefit, were not only abundantly 'padded round with flesh and fat,' 
but also failed utterly in any attempt to establish their individuality ; 
and moreover, in the instances where I had seen the Medium before she 
entered the Cabinet, so closely resembled the Medium as, in my eyes, to 
be indistinguishable from her. 

It is, I confess, a very puzzling problem (it is, in fact, the problem 
to which I alluded above) to account for the faith, undoubtedly gen- 
uine, which Spiritualists have in the personal reappearance of their 
departed friends. Again and again have I asked those who have re- 
turned, from an interview with a Spirit at the Cabinet, to their seats 
beside me, whether or not they had recognized their friends beyond a 
peradventure, and have always received an aflirmative reply, some- 
times strongly aflirmative. I was once taken to the Cabinet by a 
woman and introduced to the Shade of her dead husband. When we 
resumed our seats, I could not help asking her: 'Are you sure you 
recognized him?' Whereupon she instantly retorted, with much in- 
dignation, 'Do you mean to imply that I don't know my husband?' 
Again, at another seance, a woman, a visitor, led from the Cabinet to 
me a Materialized Spirit, whom she introduced to me as ' her daughter, 
her dear, darling daughter,' while nothing could be clearer to me than 
the features of the Medium in every line and lineament. Again and 
again, men have led round the circles the Materialized Spirits of their 
wives, and introduced them to each visitor in turn ; fathers have taken 



151 

round their daughters, and I have seen widows sob in the arms of their 
dead husbands. Testimony, such as this, staggers me. Have I 
been smitten with color-blindness ? Before me, as far as I can detect, 
stands the very Medium herself, in shape, size, form, and feature true 
to a line, and yet, one after another, honest men and women at my 
side, within ten minutes of each other, assert that she is the absolute 
counterpart of their nearest and dearest friends, nay, that she is 
that friend. It is as incomprehensible to me as the assertion 
that the heavens are green, and the leaves of the trees deep blue. 
Can it be that the faculty of observation and comparison is rare, 
and that our features are really vague and misty to our best 
friends? Is it that the Medium exercises some mesmeric influence 
on her visitors, who are thus made to accept the faces which she 
wills them to see? Or is it, after all, only the dim light and a 
fresh illustration of la nuit tons les chats sont grist The light, be it 
remembered, is always dim at these seances, and it is often made espe- 
cially dim when a Spirit leaves the Cabinet. I think I have never 
been able at such times to read the Arabic numerals on my watch, 
which happen to be unusually large and pronounced. Unquestionably 
Spiritualists will be at no loss to explain this puzzle ; possibly they 
would say that I have here unconsciously given one of the very best 
of proofs of the reality and genuineness of Materialization, and that 
my unbelief acts on the sensitive, evanescent features of the Spirit 
like a chemical reagent, and that — but it is not worth while to weaken 
by anticipation their solacing arguments. 

In any statement of this problem we should bear in mind all the at- 
tending circumstances: the darkened room; the music; the singing; 
the pervading hush of expectation ; the intensely concentrated attention ; 
the strained gaze at the dark Cabinet and at its white robed appari- 
tions ; and finally, the presence of a number of sympathizing believers. 

There is another fact about these stances which I think cannot fail 
to impress even the most casual observer, and this is the attractive 
charms which the Cabinet seems to possess for the aboriginal Indian. 
This child of nature appears to materialize with remarkable facility, 
and, having apparently doffed his characteristic phlegm in the happy 
hunting grounds, enters with extreme zest on the lighter gambols which 
sometimes enliven the sombre monotony of a seance. Almost every 
Medium keeps an Indian ' brave ' in her cohort of Spirits ; in fact, there 
is no Cabinet, howe'er so ill attended, but has some Indian there. It 
is strange, too, that, as far as I know, departed black men, who might 
be supposed to be quite as unsophisticated as departed red men, have 



152 

hitherto developed no such materializing proclivities. It is, perhaps, 
even more strange that while, in my experience, Italian Spirits neither 
understand nor speak Italian, and French Spirits can neither compre- 
hend nor talk French, and German Spirits remain invincibly dumb in 
German, it is reserved to Indian 'braves' to be glibly and fluently 
voluble in the explosive gutturals of their own well-known tongue. 

Before a seance begins, a thorough examination of the Cabinet is 
always tendered, a privilege of which I very seldom avail myself, and 
hold to be always superfluous, on the following grounds : First, if the 
Spirits which come out of the Cabinet be genuine, it is of very small 
moment how they got in, and no possible scrutiny of the material 
structure of the Cabinet will disclose the process. Secondly, if the 
Spirits be fraudulent, the Mediums are too quick-witted and ingenious 
in their methods of introducing confederates into the Cabinet not to 
conceal all traces of mechanical contrivance far too effectually to be 
detected in any cursory examination. It is also to be borne in mind 
that much can be done under cover of the darkness, which is sometimes 
total for a few minutes before the seance begins, and also that the notes 
of the melodeon are sufficiently deep and loud to drown not a little 
rustling. If the Mediums are deceitful I have always felt that in any 
endeavor to unmask them the odds are heavily in their favor. The 
methods are manifold whereby confederates may be introduced into the 
Cabinet: from above, from below, and, enveloped in black stuff, from 
back parlors, rooms and closets. It is not what goes into the Cabinet 
which, in my opinion, demands our scrutiny but what comes out of it ; 
it is to the Spirits to which all our tests should be applied, the Cabinet 
and the Medium are quite secondary. Furthermore, it should be re- 
membered that those who sit nearest to the Cabinet are always staunch 
friends of the Medium, or known by her to be perfectly safe and harm- 



Not infrequently a Materialized Spirit is seen to subside into the 
floor between the folds of the curtains at the opening of the Cabinet. 
This is termed ' de-materialization,' and not a little mystery is ascribed 
to it. The mystery vanishes when we reflect how easy it is for a lithe 
and active young woman so to bow down quickly, even to the very 
ground, as to convey the impression, when her white garments are alone 
visible against a black background, that she has sunk into the floor. 
I have at times distinctly felt the faint jar caused by the Medium's fal- 
ling backward within the dark curtains a little too hastily. At times, 



153 

when the Spirit is wholly within the Cabinet, and visible only through 
the parted folds of the curtain, the semblance of a gradual sinking is 
obtained by simply uniting slowly the two folds of the black curtain, 
beginning at the head and gradually closing them down to the feet; 
the room is generally so dark that the dark curtain is indistinguishable 
at a little distance, and the effect of slowly falling is admirably con- 
veyed. In one instance, where the Spiritual garments were not white, 
but particolored (the Spirit was a Scotch girl and wore the tartan), the 
effect of de-materializing was capitally given by the Spirit's standing 
just inside the slightly parted curtains, and then allowing the whole 
outer costume, even to the head-dress, to fall swiftly to the floor. Per- 
haps the best effect in this line, that I have seen, was on one occasion 
when a Spirit had retired within the folds of the curtain, but apparently 
immediately reappeared again at the opening ; she had been habited 
somewhat like a nun with white bands and fillets around the head and 
face ; thus, too, was she clad at her reappearance, but, as I sat quite 
close to the Cabinet, I perceived that the figure was composed merely 
of the garments of the former Spirit, and that there was no face at all 
within the head-gear. I am sure the omission could not have been 
detected at the distance at which the rest of the circle sat. This snow- 
white figure was allowed to sink very, very slowly, the dark curtains 
uniting above it as it gradually sank, until only the oval white head- 
dress around what should have been a face rested for a few seconds on 
the very floor, and then suddenly collapsed. It was in the highest 
degree ingeniously devised and artistically executed. 

There are also various styles of appearing as well as of disap- 
pearing. I think the very best and most effective of them all 
is where a Spirit gradually materializes before our very eyes, outside 
of the Cabinet, far enough, indeed, outside to give the appearance to a 
visitor directly in front of rising up from the very centre of the room. 
A minute spot of white, no larger than a dollar, is first noticed on the 
floor ; this gradually increases in size, until there is a filmy, gauzy mass 
which rises fold on fold like a fountain, and then, when it is about a 
foot and a-half high, out of it rises a Spirit to her full height, and either 
swiftly glides to greet a loved one in the circle, or as swiftly retires to 
the Cabinet. It is really beautiful, and its charm is not diminished 
by a knowledge of the simplicity of the process, which, as I have sat 
more than once when the Cabinet was almost in profile, I soon detected. 
The room is very dark, the outline of the black muslin Cabinet can 
only with difficulty be distinguished even to one sitting within six feet 
of it; a fold of black cloth, perhaps five feet long and four feet wide, is 



154 

thrown from the Cabinet forward into the room, one end is held 
within the Cabinet at about two or three feet above the floor, and 
from under the extreme opposite edge, where it rests on the floor, some 
white tulle is slowly protruded, a very little at first, but gradually more 
and more is thrust out, until there is enough there to permit the Spirit, 
who has crept out from the Cabinet under the black cloth and has been 
fbusy pushing out the white tulle, to get her head and shoulders well 
within the mass, when she rises swiftly and gracefully, and the dark 
cloth is drawn back into the Cabinet. I always want to applaud it ; it 
is charming. 

On one occasion, a Spirit tried this pretty mode of materialization, 
not directly in front of the Cabinet, but at the side quite close to where 
I sat. The Cabinet was merely a frame to which were attached black 
muslin or cloth curtains, and a Spirit can emerge at the side quite as 
conveniently as in front. Unfortunately this time, through some heed- 
lessness, the Spirit did not creep out of the frame-work with sufficient 
care, and some portion of her garments must have caught when she was 
only on her knees. I never shall forget the half-comic, half-appealing, 
feminine glance as her eyes looked up into mine, when she was only 
partially materialized and some plaguey nail had caught her angel 
robe. It was very hard not to spring to her assistance ; but such gal- 
lantry would have been excessively ill-timed, so I was forced to sit still 
while the poor animula, vagula, blandula,Yforked herself free and arose 
unfettered by my side. 

Perhaps this is as fitting a place as any to mention the test whereby 
I have tried the Spirits who have come to me. 

As this same lovely Spirit arose and looked graciously down on me 
and held out her hands in welcome, I arose also to my feet, and peer- 
ing anxiously into her face, asked, ' Is this Olivia ? ' ' Yes,' she 
softly murmured in reply. Then ensued the following conversation 
which I reproduce as faithfully as I can. It was broken off once by 
the Spirit's retiring into the Cabinet, but resumed when she again ap- 
peared to me. 

'Ah, Olive dear, how lovely of you to materialize ! Did you really 
want to come back ? ' 'Very much, of course,' she answered. ' And do 
you remember the sweet years of old ? ' ' All of them,' she whispered. 
' Do you remember,' I continued, ' the old oak near Sumner-place?' [A 
happy hit, in the longitude of Boston ! ] ' Yes, indeed, I do,' was the low 
reply, as her head fell gently on my shoulder. 'And do you remember, 
Olive dear, whose names were carved on it ? ' Yes ; ah, yes ! ' ' Oh, 
Olive, there's one thing I want so much to ask you about. Tell me, 



155 

dear, if I speak of anything you don't remember. What was the matter 
with you that afternoon, one summer, when your father rode his hunter 
to the town, and Albert followed after upon his ; and then your mother 
trundled to the gate behind the dappled grays. Do you remember it. 
dear ? ' ' Perfectly.' ' Well, don't you remember, nothing seemed to 
please you that afternoon, you left the novel all uncut upon the rose- 
wood shelf, you left your new piano shut, something seemed to worry 
you. Do you remember it, dear one?' ' All of it, yes, yes.' 'Then 
you came singing down to that old oak, and kissed the place where I 
had carved our names with many vows. Tell me, you little witch, 
who were you thinking of all that time ? ' ' All the while of you,' she 
sighed. ' And do you, oh, do you remember that you fell asleep under 
the oak, and that a little acorn fell into your bosom and you tossed it 
out in a pet ? Ah, Olive dear, I found that acorn, and kissed it twice, 
and kissed it thrice for thee ! And do you know that it has grown into 
a fine young oak ? ' 'I know it,' she answered softly and sadly, ' I 
often go to it! ' This was almost too much for me, and as my memory, 
on the spur of the moment, of Tennyson's Talking Oak was growing 
misty, I was afraid the interview might become embarrassing for lack 
of reminiscences, so I said, 'Dearest Olivia, that is so lovely of you. There, 
be a good girl, good-bye now. You'll surely come and see me again 
the next time I come here, won't you?" 'Yes, indeed, I will.' I re- 
leased my arm from encircling a very human waist, and Olive lifted 
her head from my shoulder, where she had been speaking close to my 
ear, and de-materialized. 

Marie St. Clair, who, on Spiritual authority as I have shown 
above, shares the ownership with Sister Belle of ' Yorick's' skull in my 
possession, has never failed to assent whenever I ask a Spirit if it be she. 
To be sure, she varies with every different Medium, but that is only one 
of her piquant little ways, which I early learned to overlook and at 
last grew to like. She is both short and tall, lean and plump, with 
straight hair and with curls, young and middle-aged, so that now it 
affords me real pleasure to meet a new variety of her ; but in all her 
varieties she never fails to express her delight over my guarding with 
care that which was ' the last thing on her neck before she passed over.' 
I was extremely anxious to obtain a written acknowledgment of this 
pleasure from Marie, and accordingly I took with me to one of the 
seances a little trinket, and told the Spirit that I would give it to her 
if she would just writedown for me a few words expressive of this 
pleasure, and, as she was disappearing into the Cabinet, I thrust a writ- 
ing-tablet and a pencil into her hand. Before the seance closed, she 



156 

reappeared to me, and Landing me a paper claimed my promise. In 
full faith I gave her the little breast-pin, and after the seance, to my 
chagrin, I found the writing on the paper was not from her, but a mes- 
sage from my ' father,' announcing that he had ' found the next life a 
great truth,' which was, certainly, cheering, in view of the fact that 
he was enjoying the present in so remarkably hearty and healthy a 
manner. 

For the next seance I provided an amber necklace, on whose clasp I 
had ' Marie ' engraved, and when the Spirit of the fair French girl ap- 
peared, I taxed her with her naughty, deceitful ways, and told her that 
I would not give her the necklace, which I had brought for her, until 
she gave me what I asked for, in her own writing. In a very few 
minutes she reappeared and handed me a paper, whereon she had writ- 
ten: 'I am so glad you have kept them so nicely, Your Marie.' 
(As her skull was shared by Sister Belle, I suppose Marie was strictly 
logical, if ungrammatical, in referring to it as ' them.') It was enough ; 
in a few minutes after, Marie reappeared wearing the amber beads 
glistening round her neck. 

No sooner had I given the necklace than occurred another illustra- 
tion of the remarkable and amiable pliancy with which Materialized 
Spirits will answer to any name with which they are addressed. The Me- 
dium who conducted the seance came to me and said, ' There's a Spirit 
in the Cabinet who says she's your niece.' Very thoughtlessly I replied, 
' But I haven't any niece in the Spirit world.' The instant after I had 
spoken, I felt my mistake. You must never repel any Spirit that comes 
to you. It throws a coolness over your whole intercourse with that 
particular Spirit-band ; no Spirit from it will be likely to come to 
you again. No surface of madrepores is more sensitive to a touch 
than a Cabinet full of Spirits to a chilling syllable of failure. To re- 
gain my lost position, therefore, I said hastily, ' But can it be Effie ?' 
(It was a mere hap-hazard name ; I know no ' Effie.') The Medium 
went to the Cabinet and returned with the answer, ' She says she's 
Effie, and she wants to see you.' Of course, I went with alacrity to 
where the curtains of the Cabinet stood open, and there, just within 
it, saw a Spirit whom I recognized as having appeared once before 
during the evening with Marie, when the latter had materialized as a 
sailor-boy, and the two had danced a Spiritualist horn-pipe to the tune of 
1 A Life on the Ocean Wave.' ' Oh, Effie dear,' I said, 'is that you ?' 
' Yes, dear Uncle, I wanted so much to see you.' 'Forgive me, dear,' I 
pleaded, ' for having forgotten you.' ' Certainly I will, dear Uncle, 
and won't you bring me a necklace, too ? ' ' Certainly, dear,' I replied, 
' when I come here again.' I have never been there since. 



157 

Thus is illustrated what will be, I think, the experience of every one 
who cares to apply this test to Materialized Spirits. When the 
investigator is unknown to the Medium, a Spirit materialized through 
that Medium will confess to any name in the heavens above or the 
earth beneath, in the world of fiction or the world of reality. Of 
course, it would not do to ask a Spirit whether or not it were some well- 
known public, or equally well-known fictitious, character. You would 
be repelled if you should ask a Spirit if it were ' Yankee Doodle,' but 
I am by no means sure that it would not confess to being ' Cap'en 
Good'in/ who accompanied Yankee Doodle and his father on their trip 
to town, and whose name is less familiar in men's mouths. All the 
good, earnest, simple-hearted folk who attend these seances ask the 
Spirits, when they appear to them for the first time, if they are 
father, mother, brother, husband, wife, or sister, and the Spirit will 
in every case confess the kinship asked for. But, as I have just said, 
the investigator need not restrict himself to his family, his friends, or 
his acquaintances. Let him enter the world of fiction, or of poetry, or of 
history, he has but to call for whomsoever he will, and the Materialized 
Spirit will answer : ' Lo ! here am I ! ' 

Let me strengthen this with the following additional illustration : 
Not long ago at a Materializing seance where I was, I think, 
unknown to everyone, certainly to the Medium, a Spirit emerged from 
the Cabinet, clad in flowing white robes, and advanced towards me 
with a wavering gait, which could be readily converted into a tottering 
walk, if I should perchance ask if it were my great-grandmother, or 
could be interpreted as the feeble incertitude of a first materialization, 
if I should perchance descend the family tree and ask for a more 
youthful scion. I arose as it approached and asked : ' Is this Rosa- 
mund ?' ' Yes ! ' replied the Spirit, still wobbling a little, and in doubt 
whether to assume the role of youth or of old age. ' What ! Fair Rosa- 
mund ! ' I exclaimed, throwing into my voice all the joy and buoyancy 
I could master. The hint to the Spirit was enough. All trace of 
senility vanished, and with equal joyousness she responded ' Yes, it's 
indeed Rosamund ! ' Then I went on, ' Dearest Rosamund, there's 
something I want so much to ask you Do you remember who gave 
you that bowl just before you died ?' Here Fair Rosamund nodded 
her head gaily and pointed her finger at me. ' Oh, no, no, no,' I said, 
' you forget, Fair Rosamund, I wasn't there then. It was at Wood- 
stock.' 'Oh, yes, yes,' she hastily rejoined, 'so it was; it was at 
Woodstock.' ' And it was Eleanor who offered you that bowl.' ' To 
be sure, I remember it now perfectly. It was Eleanor.' ' But Rosa- 



158 

mund, Fair Rosamund, what made you drink that bowl ? Had you 
no suspicions ? ' ' No, I had no suspicions.' And here she shook her 
head very sadly. ' Didn't you see what Eleanor had in her other 
hand? ' ' No.' ' Ah, Fair Rosamund, I'm afraid she was a bad lot.' 
' Indeed she was!' (with great emphasis). ' What cruel eyes she had !' 
' Hadn't she, though ! ' ' How did she find you out? ' ' I haven't an 
idea.' ' Ah, Fair Rosamund, do you remember how beautiful you were 
[here the Spirit simpered a little] after you were dead, and how the 
people came from far and near to look at you?' 'Yes,' said Fair 
Rosamund, 'Hooked down on them all the while.' And here she 
glided back into the Cabinet. 

It is not impossible that a Spiritualist might urge that the test which 
I apply is not a fair one — that guile will beget guile, that the Spirits 
meet me as I meet them. 

But what other possible way have I of finding out who the Spirits 
are, when they do not tell me in advance, but by asking them? When- 
ever they have been announced to me as this or that Spirit, I invari- 
ably treat them as the Spirits of those whom they assert themselves to 
be, and, in my conclusions, am guided only by the pertinency of their 
answers to my questions. Whenever William Shakespeare appears to 
me (and, by the way, let me here parenthetically note, as throwing 
light on a vexed question, that Shakespeare in the Spirit-world ' favors ' 
the Chandos Portrait, even to the two little white collar strings hang- 
ing down in front ; his Spirit has visited me several times, and such 
was his garb when I saw him most distinctly) ; when, I repeat, 
Shakespeare materializes in the Cabinet for me, do I not always most 
reverently salute him, and does he not graciously nod to me — until I 
venture most humbly to ask him what the misprint, ' Vllorxa ' in 
Timon of Athens stands for, when he always slams the curtains in my 
face ? (I meekly own that perhaps he is justified.) Have I ever 
failed in respectful homage to General Washington ? Did I ever 
evince the slightest mistrust of Indian ' braves ?' 

When a Spirit comes out of the Cabinet especially to me, how am I 
to know, or to find out, who it is but by asking ? If it be not the 
Spirit that I name, will it not, if it has a shred of honesty, set 
me right? What hinders it from telling me just who it is? If 
it be the Spirit of my great-grandmother, it can be surely no satis- 
faction to her, after all the bother of materialization, to hold converse 
with me as the Spirit of Sally in our Alley ; and if she be, in every 
sense of the word, a ' spirity ' old lady, she will instantly undeceive 
me, and ' let me know who I am talking to.' But why should I antici- 



159 

pate deceit at Spiritual hands? If William Shakespeare can appear 
to me, why not Fair Rosamund ? Hereupon a Spiritualist may main- 
tain that if the Spirit said she was Fair Rosamund, and displayed a 
familiarity with the incidents of that frail woman's life and death, she 
probably was Fair Rosamund. So be it. I yield, and will go farther, 
and hereafter find no more difficulty, than in her case, in Tennyson's 
Olivia, Marie St. Clair, and in the heroes and heroines of Scheherezade's 
Thousand and One Nights. 

Although I have been thus thwarted at every turn in my investiga- 
tions of Spiritualism, and found fraud where I had looked for honesty, 
and emptiness where I had hoped for fulness, I cannot think it right 
to pass a verdict, universal in its application, where far less than the 
universe of Spiritualism has been observed. My field of examination 
has been limited. There is an outlying region claimed by Spiritualists 
which I have not touched, and into which I would gladly enter, were 
there any prospect that I should meet with more success. I am too 
deeply imbued with the belief that we are such stuff as dreams are 
made on, to be unwilling to accept a few more shadows in my sleep. 
Unfortunately, in my experience, Dante's motto must be inscribed over 
an investigation of Spiritualism, and all hope must be abandoned by 
those who enter on it. 

If the performances which I have witnessed are, after all, in their 
essence Spiritual, their mode of manifestation certainly places them 
only on the margin, the very outskirts of that realm of mystery which 
Spiritualism claims as its own. Spiritualism, pure and undefiled, if it 
mean anything at all, must be something far better than Slate Writing 
and Raps. These grosser physical manifestations can be but the mere 
ooze and scum cast up by the waves on the idle pebble, the waters of a 
heaven-lit sea, if it exist, must lie far out beyond. 

The time is not far distant, I cannot but think, when the more ele- 
vated class of Spiritualists will cast loose from all these physical mani- 
festations, which, even if they be proved genuine, are but little removed 
from Materialism, and eventually Materializing Seances, held on 
recurrent days, and at fixed hours, will become unknown. 

Horace Howard Furness. 



INDEX. 



Advertisement calling for mediums, 

90. 
Appendix, 26-159. 
Briggs, Mr. Fred., medium, 29, 93. 
Caffray, Mr. Joseph, medium, 124. 
Flint, Mr. E. W., medium, 128, 133. 
Fullerton, Prof. G-. S., on the Slade- 

Zoellner investigation, 104. 
Furness, H. H., on materialization, 148- 
159. 
On mediumistic development, 124- 

127. 
On Slade, 70. 
Independent slate writing, 6, 14, 16, 

27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 48, 96, 115. 
Kane, Mrs. Margaret Fox, 33, 35. 
Keeler, Mr. P. L. O. A., medium, 22, 

82. 
Keeler, Mr. W. M., medium, 22, 91. 
Kellar, Mr. Harry, 77. 
Knerr, Dr., on slate writing, 115. 
Koenig, Prof. Geo. A., about Mrs. 

Thayer, 99. 
Leidy, Prof. Joseph, about Mrs. 
Thayer, 98. 
On mediums, 103. 
Letter from Mrs. Kane, 48. 
Letters, sealed, 128-147. 
Lord, Mrs. Maud E., medium, 24, 79. 
Mansfield, Dr. James, 128-133, 142. 
Martin, Mrs. Eliza A., medium, 128, 

138. 



Martin, Mrs. Dr. Eleanor, 128, 135. 
Materialization, 148-159. 
Mediumistic development, 124. 
Names of commissioners, 5, 25. 
Patterson, Mrs. S. E., medium, 6, 14, 

16, 27, 28, 31, 49, 115. 
Photographs, spiritual, 22, 91. 
Powell, Mr., medium, 24, 87. 
Preface to the Appendix, 26. 
Eappings, spirit, 21, 33, 35, 48. 
Keport of commission, 3-25. 
Kothermel, Dr., 24, 87. 
Screen, use of by Keeler, 22, 84. 
Sealed letters, 128-147. 
Slade, Dr. Henry, examined by Dr. 
Pepper, 75. 

letter from, 77. 

personal appearance, 75. 

examination of, 7, 52-76. 

resolution of commission in regard 
to, 76. 
Slate writing, 6, 14, 16, 27, 28, 29, 31, 

32, 48, 96, 115. 
Spirit rappings, 21, 33, 35, 48. 
Spiritual photographs, 22. 
Thayer, Mrs. M. B., medium, 96, 98, 

99. 
Tricks of jugglers, 19. 20. 

of Slade, 12. 
"Wells, Mrs., medium, 101. 
Zoellner, Slade-, report on, 104. 

calling attention to in report, 25. 



160 



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